A multitude of locals, a crystal clear sky & a rare astronomical event make for a truly Great Conjunction |24 December 2020

Local enthusiasts witnessing the event

• It was the first time anyone in Seychelles was able to witness the conjunction of these two planets which won’t be seen as close together for another 60 years

On December 21, a large number of locals gathered at dusk on a beach in Glacis, to watch the celestial alignment of the two largest planets in our solar system: Jupiter and Saturn.

This astronomical event is known as The Great Conjunction of 2020; this is when Jupiter and Saturn appear closest together in the night sky, as seen from Earth.

The last Great Conjunction took place nearly 400 years ago in 1623, but unfortunately even with the advent of the telescope a few years before that, no one was able to observe this phenomenon as the two planets were very close to the sun.

Although conjunctions of these two planets happen every 20 years due to their orbital mechanics, they rarely come as close together as they were on the night of December 21, 2020. The next great one will occur in 2080 and then in 7541, so for most people, a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Seychelles NATION spoke to David Plows and his fellow astronomy enthusiast, Graham Govinden, to obtain an account of the event and to discover their reactions and perceptions.    

Mr Plows, who has well over a decade of experience looking at the night sky, facilitated the viewing of the Conjunction for everyone at the beach on Monday, by bringing his telescopes and explaining the phenomenon to those who were present.

Aside from this event, he has witnessed many other astronomical events over the years, including the total solar eclipse in the United States in 2017, the rare blood moon lunar eclipse in 2018, and more recently the passage of comet Neowise in the solar system.  

“The weather looked promising at first when we arrived at the beach at around 5pm. However, just as the sun started to set, a very large and dark cloud brought rain showers. This completely obscured where we would have witnessed the Conjunction.

“We were extremely lucky though, because after just fifteen minutes, the dark cloud moved over the mountain, allowing for a crystal clear sky, and revealing what we had all been waiting impatiently for.

“Surprisingly, we didn’t see one bright star as we had been expecting to see, but rather two very distinct points of light, albeit very close to each other.

“It was a spectacular sight, even to the naked eyes. We were very delighted to finally be able to witness this, as we have been observing the two planets gradually getting closer to each other in the night sky since earlier in the year.

“We’ve looked at Saturn and Jupiter individually many times, but this is the first time we’ve been able to observe both simultaneously in the same field of view in our telescopes – in fact it is the first time in history, that a Great Conjunction has been observed by humankind through the use of optical aids such as binoculars and telescopes.

“The event overall was a great success – after many days of rain and cloudy weather this month, we finally had clear skies long enough to give us an unobstructed viewing for almost two hours.

“Much to our surprise, many people came down to the beach and wanted to look through the telescope. We got a great sense of satisfaction, not just from witnessing this event ourselves but also, from helping others witness it and see how happy they were to view the moons of Jupiter and particularly, the rings of Saturn.

“During what has and continues to be a sad year filled with much anxiety, it was nice just to be able to do something that brought about some happiness to everyone.”  

F.P.