Ruperra Castle 400 years ago
In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope to the night sky, discovering several planetary behaviours which changed our understanding of the far reaches of our solar system.
Thirteen years later, in 1623, two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, traveled together across the sky. Jupiter caught up to and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event known as a “Great Conjunction.” To people on earth the planets may have looked as though they were colliding and there was just one great star lighting up the sky!
This spectacle is very rare because it only occurs every 400 years. And more spectacular still is that it only occurs AT NIGHT every 800 years. This year 2020 was one of those years! The 23rd December is also the longest night of the year, so people all round the world will have had a great chance to go outside and see the solar system. I wonder do you know anyone who did.
1623 is the year that Thomas Morgan of Machen was well on the way to finishing the building of Ruperra Castle. Unfortunately on that date in December the “Great Conjunction” happened in the day time!
I wonder did Sir Thomas know anything about it? He had been knighted in 1623 by King James I and had held an important position as steward to the Earl of Pembroke in Salisbury, mixing with many cultured and well traveled people like the Welshman Inigo Jones. They would surely have known about Galileo’s discoveries.
Here is a link to the happening. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn
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