Prelude To Great Conjunction

The weather in Bursa went overcast and sometimes rainy from 12th December 2020 on, as the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter was approaching. On 16th December, a 2-day-old crescent Moon would join the converging planets and weather was still bad. Yet, a look at live webcam feed at 1750-m elevation in Uludag National Park showed sunny weather. So, I decided to drive up to the mountain to find clear skies with two friends. The sky over us cleared right as we entered the national park, so we decided to drive all the way up to Fatin Peak. At 2030-m elevation, we had a thin layer of fresh snow and a view of low clouds, making our site look like an island in the sky. After a bright sunset and a nice display of twilight, we enjoyed a great view of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon shining amongst the faint stars of Capricornus, over the snowy mountain vista and sea of clouds.