What is the difference between a planetary alignment and a conjunction?
Planetary alignments are where three or more planets (though I have included the Moon in my list below) come close together and form a line. Now, it might not always be a perfect line, but it is still an impressive sight to behold.
Conjunctions are where two celestial bodies come very close together. They are often so close they can be seen together through a telescope.
How to spot the latest planetary alignment
(and why they are not as rare as you think)
It can’t have escaped your notice that every couple of months we get a “once in 400 years” planetary alignment, or a super blood moon, or something or other. They seem to be incredibly regular for events that are once in several hundred years!
Well this is because each particular arrangement of planets is rare, but we do get several different arrangements a year. For example, a line up of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter may have not occurred since the time of Gallileo, but Saturn, Mars, Jupiter has.
Alignment of all the planets in June 2022
This is a big one! This month all of the planets come together in the northeast just before sunrise. Set an alarm for 6am and look north to see the line up of the easy to see planets such as Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, then you can use apps such as NightSky (pic below) to help you pick out the rest.
Let’s have a look at these two examples below…
Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction
21st December 2020
Jupiter, Saturn and the Christmas Comet
21st December 2021
How to spot the planets
Well some planets shine bright and can be very easy to pick out, such as Venus, but others like Saturn can look just like any other star. Here it can be great to use apps or sky maps to help identify what you are looking for.
A great website resource is the Time and Date Night Sky Map, and an app I use all the time is the Night Sky X app
You can always be kept up to date of future conjunctions or alignments by subscribing to my newsletter…
Western Australia Planetary Alignments 2022
So what can we expect to see this year? Well I have compiled a list of all the planetary conjunctions and alignments visible in Australia in 2022 below…
May 2022
1st – Jupiter and Venus conjunction
25th – Moon, Jupiter, Venus and Mars aligned
1st – Jupiter and Mars conjunction
June 2022
18th – Moon and Saturn conjunction
21st – Moon and Jupiter, Mars & Venus aligned
23rd – Moon and Mars conjunction
26th- Moon and Venus Conjunction
July 2022
16th – Moon and Saturn conjunction
17th – Moon, Saturn and Jupiter aligned
19th – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
22nd – Moon and Mars conjunction
August 2022
12th – Moon and Saturn conjunction
19th Moon and Mars conjunction
September 2022
8th – Moon and Saturn conjunction
10th – Moon, Jupiter and Saturn aligned
12th – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
17th Moon and Mars conjunction
October 2022
9th – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
15th – Moon and Mars conjunction
November 2022
2nd – Moon and Saturn conjunction
4th – Moon, Saturn and Jupiter alignment
5th – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
12th – Moon and Mars conjunction
December 2022
2nd – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
22nd – Moon and Saturn conjunction
29th – Moon and Jupiter conjunction
Want to know how to photograph them? Fear not! I have a blog post about how to photograph the night sky coming out soon!
AstroPortraits
It’s not just about seeing the planets, you can go one step further and photograph them! And this blog here will tell you all about how to capture that image yourself. Or you could go one better and book in your own AstroPortrait.
