“Of course, predictions about individuals were dicier than large general predictions. In the distant past, Europeans saw such alignments of the planets as signs of things to come, from famines, earthquakes, and floods, to the birth of Christ and the ultimate collapse of civilization. Monday’s conjunction will be the first visible occurrence since before the time of Marco Polo. In 1623, a similar conjunction of the planets occurred, but on the same side of the sky as the sun, which meant it wasn’t visible from the Blue Planet. It’s been nearly eight centuries since the pair of planets appeared in conjunction this close to Earth. The celestial event will play out on Monday-this year’s winter solstice-when our solar system’s two largest planets appear side by side above the horizon soon after sunset. Astronomers and amateur star gazers alike are training their telescopes on the evening sky for a heavenly spectacle when the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is more visible from earth than it’s been in nearly 800 years.
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