I think it’s rained almost everyday for the past six weeks. On about four or five of those days, the rain has arrived in short showers overnight, and the day has stayed dry and clear. The rest of the time we’ve been sat in cloud, with either strong winds driving the rain against the house or, even worse, a steady, slow seeping drizzle that gets between the tiles surrounding the skylights and drips water onto the floor. On those dreary dark days it can feel like we’re living in a damp cave.
Given this, we didn’t think the chances of seeing the Jupiter – Saturn conjunction were very high, certainly not on the Solstice itself. But on Sunday the weather forecast was better and we made plans to travel down to Criccieth to see if we could spot it. The planets were in the south-west, quite close to the horizon and so were impossible for us to see from home because of the hills. We got there just as the sun had set and had a walk along the beach as the sky darkened enough for the stars to appear.
On the shot above you can just about pick it out (look up from the k in the word pick) Steve also managed to get a close up of sorts too. You could see the two planets clearly with the naked eye but it was better with binoculars – my eyes aren’t what they were unfortunately!
As it got darker the temperature dropped quite considerably and I was glad of my woolly hat, so you can understand my astonishment when a guy got out of the car next to me, towel in hand, and jogged down the beach and into the choppy water!