Subject: We had clear skies last night!
Author:
Posted on: 2020-12-25 09:36:19 UTC
... unfortunately I then discovered that my telescope tripod is broken, and the telescope itself was so [UNKNOWN ERROR] that it couldn't even focus on the moon, let alone a planet.
Ah, well.
hS
These Great Old Ones were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them.
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”
Welcome to the Great Solstice Conjunction! If you have clear skies on this Longest Night, you can see Jupiter and Saturn together in the sky just after sunset, merged into a single bright point. Together they make up probably the second brightest thing in the night sky, after the moon.
This is the closest the two planets have appeared together since 1623, and the telescope photos are getting ridiculous: I saw one yesterday that showed both planets, three Galileian Moons, and Titan (moon of Saturn, we went there once). You can probably get a decent view even through binoculars, any time for the next couple of nights.
Luckily for the world's little remaining sanity, the stars aren't quite right for the Great Old Ones to emerge from their cursed tombs: the eclipse came a week and two hours early. So hopefully They are sticklers for precise timing! Not that that stopped me from referencing IT in the advent calendar today.
Iä! Iä! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!
hS
Via Twitter, because it's all clouds here.
Jupiter, Saturn, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan, all in the same shot. Ridiculous.
hS
Dad got a telescope for his birthday, so I at least got to see two dots off in the corner of the view.
summons Cthulu
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... unfortunately I then discovered that my telescope tripod is broken, and the telescope itself was so [UNKNOWN ERROR] that it couldn't even focus on the moon, let alone a planet.
Ah, well.
hS
We were still able to spot them!
I feel very uncursed. =P Not blessed, but certainly uncursed.
...only I just checked the weather and it's going to be pretty cloudy for the next handful of days. Dang. (Plus I never could get that telescope working to begin with.)
I'll definitely still keep an eye out, though, and at least there are multiple places to watch though a stream on the internet, according to this article from the Washington Post.
As for the Great Old Ones, it definitely is for better for the world's sanity that the stars aren't quite aligned—as fitting as an end as Them awakening would be to this nightmare of a year. I'd prefer not having to worry about Cthulhu climbing down my chimney this Christmas.