This holiday season, a rare ‘Christmas Star’ will light up the sky this month for the first time in 800 years. The rare shiny sighting will be visible from South Florida without a telescope and will kick off the winter solstice.
The timing lines up perfectly with the winter solstice meaning that December 21st is also the official start of the winter season. Luckily for us winter in South Florida consists of lots of sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70s to low-80s.
The last rare’ Christmas Star’ sighting happened in 1226, according to astronomers. As Jupiter and Saturn make their way around the sun the two planets will slowly grow closer together for the new few days until they are completely aligned according to NASA. Planet alignments are rare, usually happening once every 20 years or so, but this alignment is extremely rare because the two planets will appear as one.
By this Monday, December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn’s orbits will be so closely aligned, less than a 10th of a degree as seen from Earth that they will appear as one. The planets will continue to be millions of miles apart in space but from Earth, it will appear together without a telescope.
The best time to witness the ‘Christmas Star’ will be to look southwest as the sun is setting on December 21st. NASA predicts the next time this rare occurrence will happen will be in 60 years or so and then another 320 years after that.
