Conjunction live cam?

December 19, 2020 7:53 PM

It's cloudy where I am and probably won't clear up. Is there a good, realistic (meaning having a view of a larger expanse of the sky, not zoomed in on the planets) live cam that will show it that I can watch? Some magnification is fine but I don't want a little box with "large so I can see the rings" magnified images, I want it to be somewhat more like it would look to me in person. Thanks!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee to Science & Nature (4 answers total)

Best answer: Most of the scheduled observatory livestreams that I'm aware of have said they'll be offering views through their telescopes. I'd hope there's a possibility at least a couple of them will show some wider fields of view too, but I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone mention that specifically yet. Here are a few of the streams that you can check:

Australia (UTC+11) - Mount Stromlo Observatory [Facebook]
Japan (UTC+9) - Nayoro Observatory of Japan [YouTube]
UK (UTC) - University of Exeter Astrophysics Group [YouTube] - check this one on Sunday
US (UTC-5) - Kopernik Observatory [YouTube]
US (UTC-7) - Lowell Observatory [YouTube]
US (UTC-8) - Mount Wilson Observatory's 'virtual star party' [YouTube] and also a webinar on Zoom
posted by theory at 9:38 PM on December 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You won't be alone in this quest. The closest moment is 12/21 13:33 UTC. For many observations even with pristine skies this event will be too close to the sunset horizon or below it.

"On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will be separated by 0.1 degree in the sky. If you stretch out your arm and hold your hand out in front of you, you can estimate degrees in the sky. The width of your pinky finger is about 1 degree. So, the distance between Jupiter and Saturn will be about 1/10th of that!"

If a view on your computer screen is rather larger than a tenth of a finger-width at arms-length, try Ctrl-minus or Command-minus to shrink the magnification, or just step back.
posted by gregoreo at 4:11 AM on December 20, 2020

Response by poster: Perfect, I think at least a couple of the links given will work for me (fingers crossed) thanks mefites!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 4:59 AM on December 20, 2020

APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day is always worth a visit.
posted by theora55 at 8:04 AM on December 20, 2020 [2 favorites]