Jupiter & Saturn Conjunctio with Moons | Dec 21 2020

[MalVeauX]

Hey all,

I was fortunate that the clouds went away, we had setup to see it visually and the clouds were just sticking around. Then they just went on away as the temperature dropped as the sun rested behind the tree line. We were visually watching it in day light and into the sunset and then a bit into night. It was only 11 degrees elevation for us here in Florida. But I had decent seeing conditions for my image scale and was able to get a good event with lots of visual along with a last minute grab of imaging data to produce a decent image of the two gas giants and their moons in their native positions in a single image, no composite (I did process the moons and Saturn to be brighter to match Jupiter as they're much dimmer in reality).

Saturn & Jupiter in Conjunction with visible Moons:

C8 Edge HD SCT with 0.7x Edge Reducer
ASI224MC camera
0.55"/pixel image scale

18:47pm Eastern Time

11 degrees elevation

Very best,

[Sunshine]

An amazing time with family just can’t be beat, love the way the child is peeking over the edge of the dolly.

[symmetal]

That's a great image with good detail.  😀 The moons help to give it some depth. Had almost continuous wind and rain here for the past week. 😬

Alan

[Rock]

That turned out great. It was a little colder here in North Dakota. 14 degrees. Great shot.

[theropod]

Just came in from watching the event. Not 14°, but chilly here in north Arkansas.

Seeing was above normal quality even with the moon glare. I didn’t attempt to get a photo, but the EP view was stunning. A very high layer of moisture (near cloud) began streaming in slowly from the SW, and the moon made that glow like a street light, so I packed it in. Laying in bed with my wife softly snoring and my cat warming my feet (also asleep) after some great scope time!! Dreams of big Dobs will probably haunt me...

[Nik271]

Wow! This is superb, thank you for this inspirational image!  Considering the elevation of the two planets it is an amazing feat to get so much detail.

[maw lod qan]

Excellent! Last night after that cold front had passed the day before I think it's the best viewing of the two Giants I've seen in some time.

What area of Florida are you in? I'm out East of Bradenton and Sarasota.

Great to see more Floridians here on the SGL!

[Pete Presland]

Beautiful looking image, perfect balance between showing detail and retaining a natural look.

[petevasey]

11 degrees and good seeing - I wish!  8 degrees and dreadful seeing for me on 20th in good old NE England.  Are you sure only 11 degrees?  Even for Jacksonville at the start of Astronomical twilight Jupiter had an altitude of 20 degrees.  But be that as it may, superb image with loads of detail on both planets - very well done indeed. 👍   I had clouds on 21st and today (22nd) so the closest was not possible.  But it's rather ironic - 400 years since the last time they were so close, and my sky on 21st cleared completely just after midnight .  Only 8 hours out  in 400 years - Sod's law in spades 👹  Particularly unlucky in a way, 20 years ago the closest was 7 degrees, in 2040 the closest will be 6 degrees.  This time 6 minutes!!  What a treat.  But it would seem that most got a glimpse over the three day period.  I doubt if I'll be around for the next one (I'd be 97!) and anyway 6 degrees will be not worthy of attention after witnessing 6 minutes (well to be fair 9 minutes on 20th).

Cheers,

Peter

Edited December 23, 2020 by petevasey

[MalVeauX]

Thanks all, 🤗

On 22/12/2020 at 09:27, maw lod qan said:

What area of Florida are you in? I'm out East of Bradenton and Sarasota.

North Central, around Cedar Key & Trenton area.

Very best,

[maw lod qan]

20 minutes ago, MalVeauX said:

Thanks all, 🤗

North Central, around Cedar Key & Trenton area.

Very best,

You're probably cold this morning! 

Merry Christmas!

[petevasey]

This is arguably the best closeup image on this forum.   I've only (so far) seen one better image, but not all that much better, and that's here 

But hardly surprising when you see with what it was taken.  And that was just a quick test!

Cheers

Peter

Edited December 25, 2020 by petevasey