A bit closer...

I had a busy home-based day, cleaning a rug, painting the woodwork in the shower room and making a batch of chilli jam, which was quite a face-tingling experience, but the end product tastes very good!

I didn't get out during the sun-filled morning, but ended up at the Rowing Lake at dusk, managing to time my walk to coincide with the only heavy shower of the day. Because of the cloud cover, I didn't really think I'd see the Great Conjunction again, but towards the end of my walk the cloud cleared and it was clearly visible in the south-western sky (see extra). 

I had my tripod in the boot of the car, so was able to take some slightly steadier images than yesterday  - tonight all four major moons of Jupiter were visible (the fourth is very close to Jupiter and may only be visible by enlarging the image). Tomorrow Jupiter and Saturn will be even closer, separated by just 6 arc minutes. That's equal to 0.1 degrees or about one-fifth the apparent width of the moon. The last time these two planets appeared so close was on July 16, 1623, when they were only 5 arc minutes apart, but this wan't visible from the UK. The last time most of the world's population had a favorable view of a Great Conjunction  was on March 5, 1226, when they were even closer together at 2 arc minutes. The next opportunity to see a Great Conjunction will be in 2080 - not much use for me!