Cancelled

The Surrey chapter of the Astrological Union had planned a major event on Epsom Downs late yesterday afternoon, with thousands planning to go there to observe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, low in the south western sky, at around 17:00 local time. With this event also landing on the astrological version of a triple word spot on the Scrabble board by being the day of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. An event of great psychic power - but power which can only be harvested by ocular observation: you have to both know and see. Not like billiard balls at all, balls which do their stuff whether you are looking or not.

Sadly and with heavy hearts, after consultation with the Chief Constable of Surrey and the Chief Medical Officer for the Downs Conservancy, the committee decided that they had to cancel this (at most) once in a lifetime event. Given the numbers involved and the fact that it would be dark, social distancing was not going to happen, despite the wide open spaces. 

As it turned out, there was heavy cloud most of yesterday, and the conjunction was not visible from anywhere near Epsom, short of hiring an aeroplane from Brooklands to lift one above the clouds - with the various helicopters used by Chelsea footballers at their facility at Stoke d'Abernon not being good for this particular job.

While the various street caterers who had laid in perishable supplies against this event are talking with their insurers about whether their business continuity clauses were going to fly.

PS 1: the image above was a fake generated by computer for the people at reference 1.

PS 2: for the avoidance of astronomical doubt, posted on the morning of Tuesday, 22nd December. Blogger works to Pacific time of some sort and sometimes gets the day wrong.

Reference 1: Welcome to BBC Sky at Night Magazine - skyatnightmagazine.