A Spectacular Sight: The Moon and Saturn in Close Proximity

I have always been fascinated by the night sky and the wonders it holds. That’s why I was so excited to witness a rare and beautiful sight today, November 20, 2023: the Moon and Saturn in close proximity.

This is a conjunction, meaning they have the same apparent right ascension or ecliptic longitude in the sky. It happens when the Moon passes near a planet or a star in its orbit around the Earth. The conjunction occurred at 18:25 IST (12:55 UTC), when the Moon was 3.1° below Saturn. But I waited until after sunset, when they were high enough in the sky, to see them better.

Click any of the photos to see them in a separate tab.

The Moon was a slightly gibbous phase, 56% illuminated, and showed a faint glow on its dark side. This is called earthshine, a phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the Earth’s surface and illuminates the unlit portion of the Moon. It looked like a delicate crescent with a dim outline of the full disk.

Saturn was a pale yellow dot of light, 6.9° to the upper left of Deneb Algedi, the brightest star in the constellation of Capricornus.

I took some photos of the Moon with earthshine and Saturn nearby, and I am sharing them with you here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. They are not professional quality, but they capture the essence of the moment.

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: [Conjunction (astronomy) – Wikipedia]
: [2023, November 20: Saturn-Moon Conjunction, Venus Steps Eastward]
: [Earthshine – Moon Glow – timeanddate.com]
: [Saturn – In-The-Sky.org]