First day of winter across the United States

Today is the first day of winter across the United States. This is also the shortest day of the year. Spring won’t arrive until March 20th of next year. However, something much rarer will take place this evening when the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer in the night sky than they have since the Middle Ages. Astronomers are calling it the Great Conjunction of 2020, but it is also being called the “Christmas Star.” The rare event will be visible from sunset to a few minutes after 7 o’clock this evening low in the southwest sky. The last time this conjunction of the two planets happened was on March 4th, in the year 1226.