The Great Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn from Australia - 22 Dec 2020

[MarsG76]

Hello All,

This is a photo accurate representation of how I've seen the conjunction through a Skywatch 14" f4.6 Dobsonian, using the 17mm Ethos eyepiece combined with the 2X Powermate during the observation of the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and how well both of the planets fit into the eyepiece field of view.

My location on the east coast of Australia was totally overcast for the last week and this evening I had a small window of opportunity to actually have a glimpse of the rare event, which no doubt, I will not have a another chance of experiencing in my life time.
This happened about 17 hours after the actual closest point between the planets, and most likely the difference would be so small that it wouldn't be noticeable without direct comparison. 

This image was composited by first taking a series of shots through the eyepiece using an iPhone, I chose the best frame of the series than superimposed the overexposed planets with images of the planets captured separately with enough transparency as to accurately show how the planet details looked in the eyepiece.

Observation time was 22 December 2020 @ 09:51 UTC.

Clear Skies,

MG

 

 

[PeterCPC]

You were lucky to be able to see it - totally clouded over here as usual.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Very nice!

[orion25]

Nice work!

[MarsG76]

On 07/02/2021 at 18:28, PeterCPC said:

You were lucky to be able to see it - totally clouded over here as usual.

I was lucky to have seen it too... it was cloudy and rain for at least the week before and during 21st Dec through to evening of 22nd December.

The "Clear Outside" app was showing that there was going to be around the 65% cloud cover mark toward the evening so I setup the scope and hoped for the best.. it wasn't until around 20:30 that I started to get breaks in the clouds in the west and luckily was able to catch a glimpse of the conjunction.

The view was a little shimmery as the planets were quite low in the western sky but there was some fine(ish) details punching through occasionally.... the view was almost surreal as both planets fit comfortably into the FOV using my 2X PM and the 17mm Ethos Eyepieces and were quite large in angular size, needless to say that I was very happy to have experienced that telescopic view. 

[niallk]

A bit late to the thread 😂 .....

Stunning!!