The relatively dark skies of New Buffalo give stargazers a nice opportunity to watch an approaching evening spectacle.  Observers looking over the marsh in July can see brilliant Jupiter with Saturn to its left, both rising in the southeast around midnight.  The pair move closer together and toward the southwest sky over Lake Michigan until the December solstice, when they appear nearly to touch!  Separated by less than 0.1 degree, it will be the closest they've been since 1623.

 

To help find the planets, look left of the full moon as Fourth of July winds down. While the moon overwhelms the stars of Sagittarius, to its east are the planets. Because the two planets are nearly opposite the sun, they are also very bright.  

 

Just after sunset on December 21, 2020, the pair are visible in the direction the sun went down. Best views may be from the water's edge of both the lake and the marsh where there are fewer obstructions along the horizon. (Note: Neptune is too faint to be seen in twilight.)

 

Best views may be from the water's edge where there are fewer obstructions along the horizon.