When Jupiter and Saturn last raced across the sky in tandem, Galileo had yet to publish his famous Dialogo in which he explained the motion of planets around a central Sun. This week, the Great Conjunction of 2020 takes us back to the roots of the Scientific Revolution, when curiosity was once again rekindled in mankind. With the juxtaposition of the crescent Moon this evening, a perfect Malibu sunset was the obvious choice for a setting befitting a millennial celestial event.
Twelve or thirteen times a year, our eyes turn to the eastern hori- zon just as the Sun dips below the Sierra, hoping for a glimpse of the full Moon rising at sunset, when the White Mountains are still aglow with golden light. It’s not often that moonrise is obscured by clouds, but when it is, we have to wait but a bit longer for the dance of clouds and moonlight, for the seas of shadow and light flying across the rounded boulders of the Alabama Hills. Photographed May 2021.
