Astroblog: My Mars-Jupiter Conjunction (Morning, Sunday 18 October)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

My Mars-Jupiter Conjunction (Morning, Sunday 18 October)


The conjunction of Mars and Jupiter at 5:35 am (below Venus, the brightest object in the scene). Canon IXUS 400 ASA, 5 seconds exposure. Click to embiggen	The conjunction of Mars and Jupiter zoomed in. Mars is the dimmer dot, Jupiter the brighter dot, Venus the brightest and you can just see Regulus top left. Canon IXUS 400 ASA, 5 seconds exposure 3x Zoom. Click to embiggen

Mars (top) and Jupiter (bottom with Moons) through my telescope at 6:03 am, 114mm Newtonian with 20 mm Plossl lens. Canon IXUS 400 ASA, 0.7 seconds exposure 3x Zoom. Click to embiggen (Europa is visible on the embiggened version).	Simulation of the same scene at 6:03 am in Stellarium. The inset shows Jupiter's Moons labelled

After a horrible night where I basically woke up every hour on the hour, disturbing my Beloved Life Partner who had to get up early for work (on a Sunday), I was actually awake for the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter.

Initially I had to go a bit of a hike to see the pair clear of the local roof tops. They looked great in a clear morning sky, with the line of Procyon, Regulus, Venus and the tight pairing of Mars and Jupiter glittering in the slowly paling sky.

I then got my scope out when Mars and Jupiter cleared the roof of the Cabana. They were easily seen together in my 114mm Newtonian with my 20 mm Plossl lens, Jupiter's moons were clear as a bell (even Europa, hard up against Jupiter).

The pair also fitted in the 10 mm Plossl, but right at the edge of the field, and the atmospheric distortion made seeing detail on Jupiter hard. Went back to the 20 mm lens to do some infinity to infinity imaging with the Canon IXUS, from the back ot the camera it didn't look like I caught the moons, but it turned out I did.

All in all a satisfactory morning. Next up Jupiter and Venus on the 25th.

Labels: astrophotography, Conjunction, Jupiter, Mars, telescope, unaided eye