For people in the UK, looking at the weather, tonight looks to be the best night to observe the #GreatConjunction. Jupiter and Saturn, both visible to the naked eye and so close together they appear as a single object (depending on eyesight!). Here is how to see it...
Time - you have a narrow window. From about 4.40 to 5.30. Too early and it isn't dark enough to see them. Too late and they will have set, just likes the Sun sets as the Earth turns.
Direction - You need an unobscured south western horizon. The planets will be low in the sky, maybe two hand widths above the horizon. So consider going for a walk at around that time and use your phone's compass to check your direction.
What you will see - to the naked eye you will see a single bright, white and stationary starlike object. This is Jupiter. If you look really hard you may just spot a slightly fainter Saturn to its top left.
How best to see it - you will see it with the naked eye for sure, but binoculars or a small telescope will really make it pop. Like the pictures from @GP_O11 at the start of this thread.
Is it rare - yeah. The inclination and eccentricity of all of the planets mean that they very rarely all line up. The conjunction will only last a day or so. But there are many other interesting things to see in the night sky, throughout the year.
Is this astrological? No - The basic idea that the position of planets effect our lives was disproven by Isaac Newton with this formula - that shows that objects in the room around you exert stronger gravitational fields on you than the planets in the Solar System.
What does it mean? Is this the Star of Bethlehem? This is a chance alignment of planets that could occur at any time of year. So really it means whatever you want it to mean. Enjoy the cosmic spectacle and, above all, get outside and see it for yourself!

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More from @DrDavidBoyce

22 Dec
If I finish all of the physics a lesson or two before the end of term, I like to use those spare lessons to do something fun. For the last 12 years I have done a boys vs girls engineering challenge and the girls nearly always win. Here is why...
So, my experience of this is normally allowing 5 or so classes do this activity in any given year, always with the same set up and always with me observing just how it goes. In total I must now have observed the experiment about 60 times.
To be clear I am all for students choosing their own teams and such and I am aware of the false dichotomy of the situation. But generally due to sports, boarding houses etc my crew are quite used to boys as one gang and girls as another.
Read 17 tweets
21 Dec
Happy Winter Solstice people. 10.02 am marks the darkest point in the year. The point where the nights are longest and the days are shortest. Tonight as the Sun sets through the stones of stonehenge the new astronomical year will begin. Image
The old celebration of this day is called Yule, and is the origin of much of our merriment at this time of year. The wreath on the door, the yule log, yuletide and Father Christmas - all a nod to our pagan history. But what is actually significant about the day? Image
It is the point in the year when the sun is lowest in the sky. This occurs because the Earth is tipped at 23.5⁰ to the plane of the solar system. Which means in summer we get a high Sun, long days and nice weather and in winter a low sun, short days and British weather. Image
Read 16 tweets
16 Oct
12 years ago when I did teacher training you were encouraged to lay different activities around the room. The children would hunt for their next task. Once found they would accidentally but deliberately learn the thing by recalling the learning objective.
They would then work their way up blooms taxonomy and congratulate each other on creating things of value to other kinesthetic learners in the room. We would praise them for this. The affirmation would feed into a centralised reward system that resulted in a shout out in assembly
You should try to log it on sims or 3sys but it would be stuck on the loading page. I wonder how old those girls are now. Once loaded its secrets protected by a pair of gnomes. Getting useful information out required answering a riddle about which one was not telling the truth.
Read 25 tweets

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