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Re:The Dec 21, 2020 Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn by baggy_trough on Saturday December 05, 2020 @12:56PM (#25316624)
They are not merged - Saturn is about as far away as a moon diameter right now.
Re:The Dec 21, 2020 Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn by stblack on Saturday December 05, 2020 @04:27PM (#25318552)
The moon's diameter is about 0.5°, same for the sun, give or take — think total or annular eclipses, they are very close in angular diameter, if not equal for all practical purposes.

At this moment, December 5, 2020 at 4:20 PM Eastern, Jupiter and Saturn are 1.74° apart. So about 3.5 moon diameters apart right now.

Estimating angles in the sky is very difficult. It's also subject to perception illusions, like the "Horizon Effect" in which the Sun and Moon appear larger that their 0.5° diameter when, in fact, there's no difference.

Some say this effect explains why your penis looks small when you gaze down at it. It's hard to judge, sometimes.

Re:The Dec 21, 2020 Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn by gandalfian on Saturday December 05, 2020 @01:08PM (#25316742)
Aha the pale dot just diagonally top left of Jupiter must be Saturn then. From my skymap they appear to be touching so I assumed the seperate extra dot was m73 star. Now I know better. Much apreciated. Thank you for the reply.
Re:The Dec 21, 2020 Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn by Stratoscope on Saturday December 05, 2020 @02:15PM (#25317394)
Sky Map shows the planets much larger than they really appear in the sky.