Saturn - Jupiter Conjunction Dec 2020 (1 Viewer)

[Chosun Juan]

Nice ! I find all these photos of the rings of Saturn fascinating - especially with the moons of Jupiter so close by 👍




Chosun 🙅

 

[njlarsen]

So far, rain clouds have covered the west sky when I have looked.

Niels

 

[pianoman]

It's clearing up here in E Ireland but agonisingly slowly. Chances about 50/50, fingers crossed

Some great images so far guys, well done; not nearly as easy as it looks

 

[Tringa45]

Chosun,

A bit late here as I don't frequent the camera forum, but I do have a few thoughts and am, of course, open to correction.
The Moon is effectively equidistant from the Sun as the Earth, so exposures would be similar to those on Earth around midday under cloudless skies.
OK, the Moon has no atmosphere, but when we view it, we are also looking through the Earth's atmosphere.
Earth, Jupiter and Saturn are approximately 150 Mio. km, 800 Mio. km and 1500 Mio. km distant from the Sun respectively, so Jupiter would receive about 1/28th the illumination as the Earth and Saturn only about 1/100th. The right exposure should be somewhere between 5 and 7 stops more than on Earth.

As far as observing is concerned, many planetary observers suggest that the best views are in twilight and not in complete darkness. I had often tried to view Venus with my birding scope too late in the evening and got very diffused washed out images. I had never seen Mercury except in the transit in 2016, but in the summer it was close to Venus, which was a help in finding it. Just after sunset Venus appeared and I was surprised to see a small but perfect crescent in my 10x42 bins (monopod mounted). About 15 mins. later Mercury appeared.

It's been raining here too, so no chance of seeing the conjunction.

John

 

[Phil Bishop]

Rained off for me tonight. Previous two nights were clear, and got some images, but turbulence was a big problem with the low elevation and in particular on Sunday with rapidly moving clouds.

 

[Lawts]

Couple of questions; which direction should I be looking for Saturn and Jupiter, and any particular time?
Also the same for Mars?
Thanks.

 

[Chosun Juan]

Couple of questions; which direction should I be looking for Saturn and Jupiter, and any particular time?
Also the same for Mars?
Thanks.

Lawts - look just south of West (WSW), low in the sky, from sunset on - they set pretty soon after ~10pm (here), so there's not much of a window.

There's a few pictures in this article showing how they track over the days - you can still catch it close tomorrow, and then they will increasingly separate.

| EarthSky

Jupiter and Saturn at conjunction are only 0.1 degree apart. Don't miss them! Info, charts, photos here.

earthsky.org

Chosun 🙅

 

[njlarsen]

Clouds were kind today. Of course I had forgotten the tripod so had to work handheld with elbows against a stone. Not quite as good as the best I have seen. The two were paralel to the horizon.

Niels

 

[KC Foggin]

You did very well Niels!

 

[Chosun Juan]

Clouds were kind today. Of course I had forgotten the tripod so had to work handheld with elbows against a stone. Not quite as good as the best I have seen. The two were paralel to the horizon.

Niels

Great stuff Niels 👍
If I would have tried handheld like that it would have looked like some sort of Arabic script all over the screen ! 😁


Chosun 🙆

 

[Jon Turner]

Not up to your standards guys, but I took this one (hand held) with my Nikon B700 a few nights ago, here in North Devon through a small gap in the clouds which were racing by - since then it's been a bit Biblical! Will keep looking in case it improves. I think Christmas Eve (perhaps appropriately) looks like the best chance.

 

[Chosun Juan]

Massive tease tonight - big bands of cloud made for a beautiful sunset ! but no planets. Then a big blow came along and cleared the clouds away to reveal bright sparkly stars ..... after the planets had set ! lol



Chosun 🙆

 

[Tringa45]

If I may, an anecdote that is a little OT.
Venus' orbit is inside the Earth's, so although it is more strongly illuminated we can only see it as a crescent at best.
An amateur astronomer with a large Newtonian telescope somehow managed to locate Venus (GoTo?) at high magnification during daylight hours.
He let someone have a look and this person was reluctant to believe he was not looking at the Moon!

John

PS:- For those lucky enough to see it, this was the closest conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn since 1623.

 

[njlarsen]

For fun, I also made a composite. This with the moon earlier in the evening and the conjugation a little later. Both parts are from ooc jpgs, so I think I could do better with noise/sharpening balance if I had taken the time for using raw. The shot of the moon was at 400 mm and the planet part at 364 mm, so not completely the same setting. I hope someone enjoys seeing it.

Niels

 

[colincurry]

Here is my best effort, handheld using &D Mk2, 100-400 Mk and 1.4 tc Mk3. Hoping to have another go using tripod and remote.

I also show the perils of handholding in a shot of the moon - an interesting but unintended affect.

Colin

 

[gerald762]

This was the best that I could do last night. I think that I didn't get the camera settings quite right!!

 

[Julie50]

Looks great to me gerald

 

[njlarsen]

Gerald, you got a lot of moons which I could not get with my short shutter. The planets themselves seem a little too bright on yours. Difficult to be perfect in everything.

Niels

 

[Chosun Juan]

Gerald, you got a lot of moons which I could not get with my short shutter. The planets themselves seem a little too bright on yours. Difficult to be perfect in everything.

Niels

Niels, it looks like Gerald could have gotten away with a faster shutter - it's a fine balance ! made all the more difficult by the differences in brightness.

All the photos I have seen showing detail in both planets, have been stacked from multiple different level exposures. Otherwise Jupiter gets blown out on one hand, or you miss the moons on the other.

I've got clearish blue skies today - who knows what tonight will bring ?! 😊



Chosun 🙅

 

[Sterngucker]

Did not get to photograph or even see due to clouds, darkness and unplanned work needing to be done. Not necessarily in that order.