The “poinsettia” lights up the December sky for the first time in 800 years

(WJW) – On December 21, people can witness something they haven’t seen for nearly 800 years.

That’s right, during the upcoming winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn will be lining up to create an incredibly beautiful wondrous star, or what is known as the “Christmas Star” or the “Star of Bethlehem”.

These two planets have not appeared (relatively) close to the Earth’s vantage point since the Middle Ages.

“The alignment between these two planets is quite rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this pairing is extremely rare because of how close the planets are to each other,” said Patrick Hartigan, an astronomer at Rice University, Forbes. “You will have to go back to before sunrise on March 4, 1226, to see a better alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”

Stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere must turn their heads and telescopes to the southwestern part of the sky about 45 minutes after sunset to see the planets on December 21.

According to Forbes, seeing stars of this size won’t happen again until 2080.

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