Vernal Equinox: the Jupiter-Mars conjunction welcomes the new season – 20 Mar. 2020
Today (exactly on 20 March 2020, at 03:50 UTC) our Sun, in its apparent motion along the Ecliptic, crossed the Celestial Equator from South to North: for this reason, we celebrate the Vernal Equinox. We celebrated the start of our Spring enjoying and imaging the spectacular conjunction involving Jupiter and Mars, exactly at the very moment of the Vernal Equinox.
The Jupiter-Mars conjunction, with Saturn on the left – 20 Mar. 2020, 03:50 UTC, Vernal Equinox.
So, we in the North say bye-bye to Winter and welcome to Spring, while our Southern friends say goodbye to Easter and salute Fall.The image above was captured exactly at the very moment of the Vernal Equinox: 20 March 2020, at 03:50 UTC. I was in Rome, looking at the stars from my balcony.
Jupiter and Mars, having a nice and bright conjunction, shine not far from Saturn, the morning sky, the S-E horizon. I used a Canon 5D mark IV DSLR body and a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, both installed on a solid tripod.
Jupiter showed with three of its galilean Moons (from left to right: Io, Ganymede and Callisto; there is also a star just below Io): they are well visible in the picture below:
While shining with Mars, Jupiter shows its satellites Io, Ganymede and Callisto.
You can see all this for a few more nights, you just need to wake up a bit earlier than our Sun and look S-E: have fun!
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