167 replies to this topic

[Special Ed]

Hey,

 

There are some nice images of the conjunction posted here.   

 

It was overcast at my place on the 21st but we had clearing yesterday evening so I took some pictures from my upstairs porch again (after waiting for clouds to move that were exactly in front of the planets).  My wife Judy could see the separation with the unaided eye but my eyes weren't good enough--it looked like a big, bright star to me.

 

I've attached two pics--one is a widefield and the other is a little zoomed in.  I'm going to compile the 5 widefield pics I took--probably have some time when this next storm comes through--to see the closing separation (but there will be a big jump between the 15th and the 22nd, lol).

 

After they went behind the trees from the vantage point of my porch, I went down my lane with the 12x36 image stabilized binoculars to a place where I could still see them but they were sinking fast.  I made a quick and dirty field sketch but I haven't scanned it yet.

 

Pretty cool thing to see--I'm grateful the clouds parted and allowed the view.

 

Click on the pics for the best view.

 

Canon T5i, 27mm f/4, 2s, ISO 200

 

 

Canon T5i, 55mm f/5.6, 4s, ISO 200

 

Edited by Special Ed, 23 December 2020 - 10:04 AM.

[REC]

Well, last night was better than the 21st. because of no wind and good stable skies. Also milder, 50's out. Really pretty sight against a deep blue sky around 6pm.

 

I had my C102 out in my front yard. Could not use my other bigger scopes because of back problems. But at f/1000 I could still get pretty good magnification for them. I first used my Baader 8-24mm zoom to see how much magnification I could use on them and still have a clear image as they where low in the sky. It looked like 80x was the best magnification under the sky conditions. This is an ideal eyepiece for observing planets, just dial in the best views and enjoy.

 

Next up, I wanted to try my binoviewer with a pair of Brandon 16mm. Perfect fit! The framing was just right and both images where sharp. Saturn almost looked 3d sometimes, just floating left of Jupiter! Fantastic sight, stayed the longest with this set - up. I couldn't take my eyes away, it was so breathtaking, a memory for life. As it continued to go lower, I switched over to mono with my N T6 13mm, 82* FOV. Nice wide view of the planets and about a dozen stars in the field. Now getting real low and close to a roof top, I need to back off the magnification a little to still see a clear image. Now in goes the N 19mm Pan.This EP gives me me amazing sharpness and contrast with a very comfortable 68* FOV. 

 

Well, now it's getting to low in the sky about 6:30pm and wrapped it up. An unforgettable evening!

 

I hope others had good skies as I did and will check it out in a few days. We have rain for tommorrow, but it's clear and cold for the weekend, 30's and 40's daytime!

 

Happy Holidays all and clear skies!

 

Bob

[chrysalis]

Please see the three posts (31-32-33) starting with this one for my adventures last night 12-22-20 and the conjunction! Obviously visual was much more stunning, but these are pretty good since I modified with polarizing filters to improve the iPhone performance !

 

https://www.cloudyni...ere/?p=10751037

[ssmith]

The weather on the day of the conjunction turned out to be absolutely perfect in the Denver Metro area.  I had been going out to my spot (Daniels Park) for the 5 days prior to the "big day" and the weather had been cold and windy but on the day that counted it was ideal.  Also on those prior days I had my spot to myself but on the 21st it looked like the closing scene from "Field of Dreams" with the cars lined up trying to get into the parking lot.  I had figured this would probably happen so I got to my spot early to stake my claim and it was a good thing I did.

 

I set up my TSA120 refractor and had another camera set up on a tripod. Another member of our local astronomy club set up close by with a C11 and an 80mm triplet.

 

My friend and I were the only ones with telescopes so of course everyone there wanted to take a peek and asked numerous questions about the celestial event and our equipment.  I had a flip mirror attached to the back of my scope so it was an easy matter to take a few pictures and then switch to the eyepiece view and let a few people take a peek.

 

I think the news media really over-hyped this event and raised the expectations of most people who were expecting a blindingly bright beacon from Heaven.  I do think it looked more impressive earlier in the week when they were higher in the sky albeit a bit further apart.

 

 

Edited by ssmith, 23 December 2020 - 04:38 PM.

[The Mad One]

I was covered up here on the 21st, overcast cloudy until long after Jupiter & Saturn had sunk below the horizon...  BUT!  I did make a run at it on the 22nd, had about 25 minutes of available acceptable sky conditions before they got too low on my available horizon to shoot any more images.  I did a total of 8 runs of 60 seconds each with my QHYIII462c and Skywatcher 12" Quattro Newtonian.  The image below is the "most acceptable" run of the bunch" aligned, stacked and processed.  A day late with time short!!

 

 

 

[REC]

The weather on the day of the conjunction turned out to be absolutely perfect in the Denver Metro area.  I had been going out to my spot (Daniels Park) for the 5 days prior to the "big day" and the weather had been cold and windy but on the day that counted it was ideal.  Also on those prior days I had my spot to myself but on the 21st it looked like the closing scene from "Field of Dreams" with the cars lined up trying to get into the parking lot.  I had figured this would probably happen so I got to my spot early to stake my claim and it was a good thing I did.

 

I set up my TSA120 refractor and had another camera set up on a tripod. Another member of our local astronomy club set up close by with a C11 and an 80mm triplet.

 

My friend and I were the only ones with telescopes so of course everyone there wanted to take a peek and asked numerous questions about the celestial event and our equipment.  I had a flip mirror attached to the back of my scope so it was an easy matter to take a few pictures and then switch to the eyepiece view and let a few people take a peek.

 

I think the news media really over-hyped this event and raised the expectations of most people who were expecting a blindingly bright beacon from Heaven.  I do think it looked more impressive earlier in the week when they were higher in the sky albeit a bit further apart.

 

Jup-Saturn 45mm PL5 12-21-20 024 edit small.jpg

 

Jup-Saturn 120mm M10 mkii 12-21-20 055g edit small.jpg

My view had the opposite arrangement in my 102 refractor. Jupiter was to the right and Saturn. I would use Jupiters moons to get the best focus for both planets. Much sharper images last night without all the wind we had on Monday.

[Sheol]

                        Very nice pic Mad One, got all 4 Jovian moons & a very clear view of Saturn's Rings. Even if its technically 24 hrs after the BIG Event, that is gorgeous. Thank you for sharing.

 

                        Clear Skies,

                            Matt.

[John_Moore]

You might think that mention of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) would mean just lunar imagery alone, however, the spacecraft did, in this case, take a shot of the conjunction here. They're not the best of shots from the Narrow Angle Camera onboard, but, still, worth noting for the record.

 

John Moore

Edited by John_Moore, 24 December 2020 - 05:48 AM.

[Sheol]

                  Very nice pics, however, it seemed to miss the moons to both Saturn & Jupiter. I suppose the glare from Luna actually was drowning them out a bit. Like what happened to stars near the horizon of Astronaut pictures.

 

                          Clear Skies,

                                 Matt.

[EverlastingSky]

Monday the 21st was clouded out. But Tuesday and Wednesday, the 22nd and 23rd, were clear and was able to get in two extraordinary visual viewing sessions of the event. TEC140, Leica mirror binoviewer straight through, 7mm Delites at 140x yielded the usual memorable images, very much like The Mad One's image above, despite somewhat low altitude. Seeing 5(6)/10 with Cassini clearly at ansae and Jovian belts etc,.

 

Really cool to see these two planets in one field of view at my usual most used magnification of 140x   

 

The afocal picture was taken as an afterthought through an accompanying TV60 at 120x on the 23rd.

 

 

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[HellsKitchen]

Following on from my previous post, here are some pics from the 21st. All I did was use a phone attached to the scope with a Celestron NexYZ. I'm no astrophotographer in any sense. Seeing was very turbulent, even visually I could only barely see Jupiter's two main belts. In good seeing with the planets at any decent elevation, this scope throws up razor sharp images even at 200x plus. 

 

 

 

 

 

Couple of point n shoot pics from a digital camera

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the scope. 130mm F/5 Newt, 4mm Delite for 162x, field stop for context

 

 

 

 

Can just barely see Titan at the 11 o'clock position from Saturn. Hint - use averted vision 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can just about see a belt on Jupiter here

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of shots from the 22nd aswell. 

 

 

 

 

Nearly fell of my chair when I saw this creepy UFO upon uploading this pic to my computer

 

 

 

 

*nah just a departing aircraft

Edited by HellsKitchen, 25 December 2020 - 11:46 AM.

[Dave Mitsky]

Here's an iPhone shot that I took on Tuesday evening.

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[Dave Mitsky]

I observed Jupiter and Saturn again on Wednesday evening from the same location under a partly to mostly cloudy sky with Canon IS 15x50s and my 101mm f/5.4 Tele Vue refractor at magnifications of 18, 77, 90, 108, 135, and 180x.  The two gas giants were about 15 arc minutes apart at the time and just barely fit into the true field of view of my 3-6mm Nagler zoom eyepiece at the 3mm setting (180x).

 

My wife took the first photo in this post with her new iPhone.  It shows Jupiter to the left of a dark triangular cloud near the center of the image.  

I've included a screen capture from Stellarium that displays the positions of Jupiter and Saturn at 5:45 p.m. EST.

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[Dave Mitsky]

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I snapped a few hand-held afocal shots of Jupiter and Saturn through the refractor with my iPhone.

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[Dave Mitsky]

I traveled to a location with an excellent western view and observed Jupiter and Saturn with Canon IS 15x50s and a 101mm f/5.4 Tele Vue refractor at magnifications of 18, 77, 90, and 108x on Sunday evening.  The two gas giant planets were at an altitude of approximately 9 degrees at 5:45 p.m. EST.  Jupiter and Saturn were separated by about 40 arc minutes and easily fit into the 64 arc minute true field of view produced by a 7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 (77x).  I was able to see the Galilean satellites but not Titan.

I also looked at the rising gibbous Moon, noting the craters Aristarchus, Copernicus, Plato, and Tycho, and Mars with the 15x50s and the refractor.

 

Here are some of the iPhone photographs that I took and two screen captures from Stellarium.
 

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[Dave Mitsky]

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[Dave Mitsky]

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[Special Ed]

I put together a gif of the images I made from my porch between Dec. 9th and Dec. 22nd.  There's a big gap between the 15th and the 22nd due to a week of bad weather.  The planets jump around a little in the animation but you can tell they are closing.

 

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing