SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A special planetary sight  - a great conjunction of Jupiter an Saturn - can be seen by the public in a Monday virtual event. 

The University of Illinois Springfield plans to have a Zoom meeting, which can be accessed here, that shows views of the conjunction through the 14-inch UIS Campus Observatory telescope. It will start at 5 p.m. Monday and go until the planets set, which should be around 6:30 p.m. 

Click here and go to "Connecting to Virtual Star Parties" lower in the page for meeting ID and password information for Zoom. 

A great conjunction is what happens when two planets appear very close to each other in a field of vision. This is what will happen with Jupiter and Saturn, and the Dec. 21 event is unique because Saturn will appear about six Jupiter-diameters away from Jupiter - a conjunction closeness that hasn't been seen in many hundreds of years, UIS said. 

UIS officials explained what is really happening when two planets appear to be close to each other through a person's eyes. It isn't quite how it seems. 

"Keep in mind that even though we see them close together in the sky, that Jupiter and Saturn will still be very far apart," the UIS website said. "During the conjunction, our line of sight to the two planets converge so that Saturn appears to be near to Jupiter along the line of sight, but it is actually very far behind Jupiter. Kind of similar to what happens when the Moon passes near a bright star, we know the Moon is a lot closer than the bright star, but the lines of sight to them converge."

Click here for a brief video explaining the conjunction, along with some facts about Jupiter and Saturn.Â