NewsExpress

An animated Google Doodle celebrates winter solstice and the great conjunction. It suggests one to keep eyes to the skies for the current ‘great conjunction’ of Saturn and Jupiter.

Google has collaborated with NASA to craft an animated Doodle depicting the great conjunction. Doodle shows Cartoon Saturn and Jupiter meeting up for a quick high five. It also shows the winter solstice as the literally ‘snow capped’ Earth watching the other two planets.

“As Earth’s Northern Hemisphere hunkers down for winter and its longest night of the year, it seems Jupiter and Saturn have decided to put on quite an unusual show for the world to see,” wrote Google.

In India, the conjunction can be watched between 06:30 pm-07:30 pm. Delhi’s Nehru Planetarium has opened registrations for viewing the celestial phenomenon. To avoid crowding, the planetarium has started skywatching from December 20 and this will go on till December 22.

If you want to be super-precise in your observations, the exact time of the 2020 winter solstice will be 10:02 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Monday. 

Webcasting will also be done on the Facebook and YouTube pages of the planetarium depending on weather conditions.

Ankit Anand

Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction: When and How to Watch the Celestial Event in India