Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction 2020

I have them in my notebook going back months, of course. They are finally slipping behind the roofs and trees. See the previous post. But with some exceptions, conjunctions are only aesthetically important to us: we do not learn more about anything. Occulations do offer opportunities to compare and contrast observations and measurements.

Mostly, it was a social event. I took the occasion to post on-topic at discussion boards that I visit: Cloudy Nights, The Sky Searchers, the British Astronomical Society, the Society for Amateur Astronomy, and Star Gazers. Astronomy has long been an international community of amateurs and professionals. I met someone from Houston on a British forum.

I purposely put the 70-mm National Geographic
to work because any telescope is better than none.

Back in the 1970s, I participated in a fanzine called The Libertarian Connection. We sent in two pages (mimeographed until about 1976, then photo-offset) and the hosts printed them off, bound them, and mailed them out every six weeks. In 1977, while working at a computer terminal at Michigan State University where I had hacked some time, I got a message on my screen from a friend on a computer at Lansing Community College. In 1983, I joined a bulletin board, and connected with a 300 baud modem. So, the online discussion board is a medium that I understand. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

Ground Truth 

Jupiter-Mars Conjunction

Defending the Hobby-Killer Telescope

In Support of the Entry-Level Telescope