Jupiter & Saturn Conjunction - Not Seen Since 1623

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Trevor
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I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a cloud free night on Monday because the next chance I'll get to photograph it won't be until 2080 and I'll be about 123 by then.

Anyone else going to try? I don't normally do astro stuff, but I think this is worth a try.

View: https://youtu.be/WdQhoLGeoWY
 
I'll be trying but........... They're pretty close now and have I seen them? No. And what's the forecast for as far forward as the Met Office gives? Cloudy. Except for a hint that there may be a short clear spell on Saturday evening. Probably before the planets get high enough to clear the roof of the farmhouse over the road. I'm not giving up hope though. I've seen some good images of the approach.
 
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Good luck anyway Jan.

I doubt we'll be cloudless either, but after forty years of following weather forecasts due to work (flying) one thing I know for certain is that they often get it wrong.

Anyway, I've only got 850mm plus a crop to get an image, so I won't be getting good pics anyway. I'll wait to see the ones taken with telescopes etc. that appear on Flickr.
 
Good luck anyway Jan.

I doubt we'll be cloudless either, but after forty years of following weather forecasts due to work (flying) one thing I know for certain is that they often get it wrong.

Anyway, I've only got 850mm plus a crop to get an image, so I won't be getting good pics anyway. I'll wait to see the ones taken with telescopes etc. that appear on Flickr.

After a lifetime of outdoors activities (motorcycling, hill walking, recreational flying) and as an astronomer I know a bit about the weather and how hard it is to forecast for what is a relatively small island of very varied terrain on the downwind side of the Atlantic. The Met Office can use all the supercomputers it likes but as I say for a giggle - computers are programmed according to rules but no-one's told the weather what the rules are......... I wonder if the Met Office are looking into AI and machine learning.......
I only have a 600mm and crop Canon for imaging. I have a 150mm scope but it's visual only. My partner has a couple of good imaging scopes, a dslr and a ccd camera, but his horizon is a lot worse than from my place and his kit takes ages to set up so isn't suitable for a quick look. Forecast for tomorrow is still hinting a clear spell (if windy) then maybe clear again Xmas Eve, but nothing in between and they're getting awkwardly low.
There's a good image by Paul Sutherland on the SPA (Society for Popular Astronomy) Facebook page, taken on Tuesday between clouds, showing Titan and the Galilean moons.
 
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What's the ideal settings to use? I'm not really an astro photographer so don't want to try and just wing it on the night.
Also, regarding focal length, is it better to use wide angle, like my 15-35mm or go telephoto? I've got 70-200 and 100-500.
 
What's the ideal settings to use? I'm not really an astro photographer so don't want to try and just wing it on the night.
Also, regarding focal length, is it better to use wide angle, like my 15-35mm or go telephoto? I've got 70-200 and 100-500.

Settings will depend a lot on what kit you're using. The planets are low in the sky in the SW so their movement relative to us is quite fast. On the up side they are bright, so you don't need a hugely long exposure. Set the iso as high as you can. You will know when you start to get unacceptable noise on the camera you're using. Accept some noise is inevitable. You don't need a large dof so you can open up the aperture. They are very close, so if you want a shot that could capture Jupiter's Galilean moons (the four brightest ones) go for the 100-500. If you want a very wide angle to include lots of landscape go for the 15-35 but the planets will be pinpricks, so unless you have an interesting landscape to set them against I wouldn't bother. I'm assuming you'll be using a fixed tripod. Manually focus either on a distant object or via live view if that works for you. Start with a shutter speed of a couple of seconds and work your way up. You will get to a point where you will get visible 'trailing' or the bright planets will be blown. Take lots of shots, try different focal lengths, and keep the images you like best. There are no hard and fast rules with astrophotography, I'm afraid. When I was out shooting Comet Neowise back in July I was very much winging it till I had a feel for what worked, and I've done it before. If you're outside your house you may be able to take a couple of minutes to whip the camera card into a computer which may help with finding the best settings quickly. If the sky is clear start watching just after sunset and try for them as soon as you can see them.
 
Well it's occasional drizzle with heavy cloud here. No chance today.
 
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Not a hope for me either - it's chucking it down. Don't you just love UK weather? :banghead:
 
I had an okay view of it over the house in front of me last night but I don't have the focal length to properly get a decent image and my telescope is in parts in the shed.

Binocular view was pretty though.

Tonight is not looking good at all.

I posted this elsewhere (so sorry if this is your third time seeing it) but if any of you have a telescope and a point and shoot you can sometimes get a decent image holding the lens either on to the eyepiece or stick it in the focuser tube. It's very hit and miss. I used a Canon Ixus 400 P&S zoomed out to 132mm I think it is. 4mp sensor. These are from 2005/6 from my front porch in suburban New Jersey.

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Not going to see it here either. I was engrossed in work yesterday, forgot what the time was and went outside too late to a seemingly clear sky....... except for the bank of cloud to the SW which would have hidden them, which made me feel a lot better.
 
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really wanted to see this (as its my birthday !!!) - but rain & lockdown stopped play....
 
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Had another go on Christmas Eve, it was clearer and less windy. Whilst there I thought I would capture photos for a stack even though I know nothing about stacking and Registax but had a play and this is what I got, with hindsight I should probably have shot a video as well as stills. You can see 3 of Jupiter's moons, 4 were visible on the zoomed camera live view but it got a bit noisy if I tried to bring that out in the stack.

stack1.jpg
 
We’ve had cloud most evenings, but a couple of days ago the sky was mostly clear but, as it got dark, a bank of cloud rolled in and covered them. I got a couple of shots later when it cleared for a few minutes, but nothing worth posting here.
 
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I never got to see anything in the end, it was always cloudy. I couple of nights it cleared, but of course it was too late then. :(
 
Cloudy :(
 
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