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Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction: Visible


Andrea B.

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We've been going out each evening after sunset to look at the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction. I was amazed to be able to get this photo with the Nikkor 200-500/5.6E ED VR AFS on the D500. This is the first time I've ever managed to get something which actually looks like rings around Saturn.

 

I had to layer a brighter "pushed" exposure over a darker one to enable seeing the moons of Jupiter. I could see them in focus in the monitor but they didn't show up in the NEF without that push.

 

There was a lot of chromatic aberration and also kind of a "bloom" around Jupiter and its moons. But I was pleased to actually see a bit* of golden hue for Saturn (and also some aberration there too).

 

*a bit too much golden hue actually. la!

 

Any justification for showing this photo on UVP other than my excitement in actually getting the shot with ordinary photo gear? Not really! Hope you enjoy it anyway.

 

I did try an IR photo of the conjunction, but could only get the moon reflecting some IR. Saturn/Jupiter did not show up at all under a Hoya R72.

(I was probably doin' it wrong 'cause I know an IR of Jupiter is possible.)

 

It was too too cold for me to experiment too much each night. The lens began to "slip" from its focal length position. And the auto-focus began to be very sluggish. It was about 24°F/-3°C last night.

 

I want to try again to see whether I can get a Jupiter which is not so blown out.

 

Reference: https://www.skyatnig...jupiter-saturn/

 

f/8 for 1/30" @ ISO-800

Focal length: 500 mm approx 560 mm approx 700 mm*

Teleconverter: 1.4x

19 Dec 2020 @ 18:57 MST (UT-7)

Cropped, no resize. Stack of moons frame over planets frame.

saturnJupiterConjunction_20201219laSecuela_14284moonsCrop.jpg

 

 

Edit: Corrected focal length.

Edit. Corrected focal length again. Geez!

 

* I think the lens was fully racked out, but I noticed slippage over time.

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Just went out of my house, it's 6:43 in the morning now here, still dark, and I can't see a star since it is all misty.

 

...and just discovered they are below the horizon now.

 

Seeing Jupiter and Saturn that close is incredible.

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Great capture Andrea, very well done. Getting details on Jupiter, its moons and Saturn visible at a time seems to be tricky, but I have seen examples where shades have been stretched hard. Not looking good with respect to clouds here, and in addition it will be low to the horizon, but I might check after sunset tomorrow even if the forecast on Astrospheric does not look so good.
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Wow that is excellent.

Now I want to know if I can see that here.

Only a 500mm lens. I didn't know you could see that with only that focal length.

 

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Man-o-man, I did not know this myself. But we got it. I was just jumping around doin' the Country Hoe-Down in my Cowgirl Boots, I was that excited. I probably scared all the coyotes for miles around.

 

I had to lock down tight on tripod and use a Vello remote to fire the shutter. The 200-500 was on a Wimberly arm because those planets were visibly moving out of the focusing square very quickly. More than half of the shots were not good.

 

'T'was fun!

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To give you an idea of the scale, here is the uncropped photo (resized to 1200 pix across).

 

I'm thinking that ideally 3 exposures should be made, one for Jupiter, one for Saturn and one for Jupiter's moons. And I'm pretty sure I could have gotten more detail with the D850.

So many things to try!!

 

The planets were just about to disappear behind our front courtyard wall.

 

saturnJupiterConjunction_20201219laSecuela_1430601.jpg

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Heh, multiple exposures are hard because the planets move relative to us (or rather, the earth turns). So you have to do some hand alignment or get a tracker. (Auto-alignment like photoshop and even the astronomy programs seems to fail when you have only a few tiny blobs on a sea of black.)
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Amazing Andrea, especially seeing Saturns rings. We saw it here in the UK, just after sunset, so the sky was still relatively light, but still very special to see.
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Here's my Mars effort for 21 Dec 2020.

Previous attempts on other nights were overexposed.

This one shows some red and dark red areas so I was pleased.

 

Mars reference: https://skyandtelesc...iew-until-2035/

 

D850 + Nikkor 200-500/5.6E ED VR AFS + 1.4x Teleconverter

Focal length approx. 700 mm.

Vello wireless shutter release

f/8 for 1/125 @ ISO-800

Unresized crop

mars_20201221laSecuela_9100.jpg

 

 

To indicate the scale, here is the full frame resized to 1200 pixels width.

I had set the framing format to square (1:1). This does not incur a resolution change.

Arrow points to the planet.

mars_20201221laSecuela_9100scale.jpg

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Thank you.....

but I'm not sure how much I had to do with it given the amazing focus capability of Nikon DSLR cameras like the D500 and D850. It still surprises me that their auto-focus can tune in on a tiny bright dot in the sky like Mars.


 

Here's my Saturn/Jupiter effort for tonight. I used the D850, but I think that I did better with the D500 (see above). It was fun though to use the touch screen focus on the D850. I also used electronic first curtain shutter and mirror up with the wireless remote shutter trigger so that shutter slap and camera vibrations were kept to a minimum.

 

I'm not sure whether there were 3 or 4 moons of Jupiter tonight. I could only see three when converting the photos, but had thought I saw 4 on the monitor while shooting. Of course, it could have been a star I mistook for a moon. The skies looked clear, but there seemed to be some "atmosphere" present somewhere between me and the planets which prevented getting any good clarity for Jupiter and its moons. That's my excuse anyway !!

 

Still, what great fun we had sitting out freezing our buns off looking at planets !!

 

 

D850 + Nikkor 200-500/5.6E ED VR AFS + 1.4x Teleconverter

Focal length approx. 700 mm.

Vello wireless shutter release

f/8 for 1/100 @ ISO-800

This is an unresized crop.

saturnJupiterConjunction_20201221laSecuela_911801.jpg

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The skies looked clear, but there seemed to be some "atmosphere" present somewhere between me and the planets which prevented getting any good clarity for Jupiter and its moons.

Yeah, that atmospheric turbulence issue is called "seeing" by the astronomy crowd. They even have predictions for it! You can check your local observatories here:

http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/prov/New_Mexico_map.html?Mn=lenses

You click on an observatory and click through to the page for that observatory like this:

http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/TngrOBNMkey.html

 

On that page it explains how to read the charts and interpret them. This is one of my favorite websites for predicting cloud cover, which is useful for all photographers who work outdoors!

 

 

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Seeing is the main limitation of the atmosphere in my opinion. It makes points appear as larger blobs, and that's the reason you will never see a star as a round sphere from Earth, even with a very powerful telescope.

 

Also, it would be cool to take UV and IR images too. Maybe, pushing it really far, one can try SWIR and LWIR.

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Astrospheric is also very good for planning with respect to weather in North America and sun/moon. It is based on the same Canadian Weather service models as the Clear sky link above (which I also use):

https://www.astrospheric.com/

One can directly dial in coordinates and get the maps generated on the fly.

That and Stellarium are my main astrophotography planning tools.

However the best way to evaluate seeing is to look for lack of twinkling in the brighter stars.

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Andrea so just for me to understand how you did it ( in case I ever get a new camera with a nice telephoto lens). You say you took an exposure for saturn and one for the galilean moons, did you change the ISO between them?

 

And then you mixed the layers in post?

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Planets

I could only expose for Jupiter because the camera/lens would not lock in on Saturn. (I was using spot exposure. And Earth was moving too fast.) Anyway, if you expose for Jupiter, then Saturn will be a bit dull. If you try to expose for Saturn, then Jupiter is very blown out. Currently Jupiter is at about magnitude -2 and Saturn at about .5.

 

I wanted to try to get a non-blown out Jupiter. I think I did, but the "seeing" did prevent much detail (I think?) In the resulting photo Saturn was a bit dimmer. That was easily managed with a tiny bit of a brightening brush over Saturn.

 

Moons

Leaving ISO the same at 800 and aperture the same at f/8, I increased exposure time by 1 stop, then by 2 stops. Jupiter gets blown out, but I found the moons. I pushed the moons frame a bit more when converting.

 

Note: Neither the D850 nor the D500 has a pinpoint exposure. That might have been helpful?

 

Stack

Layer the planets frame over the moons frame in Photoshop Elements. Set the top layer to difference and line up the planets. Use the eraser over the moons. Reset the top frame to Normal. Flatten the two frames together.


 

I want a telescope !!!!

 


Most folks set ISO too high for Mars, Jupiter and Moon photos. That stuff is really bright.

You can easily use Sunny-16 for the Moon: f/16 for 1/100" @ ISO-100.

 

Added: That does assume nice clear skies.

Added: See this --> Looney 11 (laughing)

 

Disclaimer: I am def not an expert at this kind of photography. :lol:


Added: A teleconveter also impedes focusing on such a tiny dot as Saturn. Handled Mars and Jupiter quite well though.

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D850 + Nikkor 200-500/5.6E ED VR AFS + 1.4x Teleconverter

Focal length approx. 560 mm.

Vello wireless shutter release

 

Wait, how do you get 560mm? Were you not all the way zoomed in? 500*1.4 = 700mm?

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I need an editor. I never catch my own dumb stuff. :grin:

Thank you once again for your good eyes. I'll go make the correction.

 

A friend sent us a conjunction photo made at 560 mm. I think I had that in my head. Then I copied it twice more.

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