The Great Conjunction, Saturn and Jupiter with Visible Moons at 300mm

I didn't have high hopes to get a glimpse of the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter this month. I've gotten my hopes up too many times and gotten burned by Indiana weather in December. Like my husband says, better to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised if it works out. When I saw the clouds clearing up a bit this evening around sunset, I dusted off my camera and tripod. 

The conjunction wasn't visible at first, so I used a great iPhone app one-two punch to find what I was looking for. First I opened Star Walk and found Saturn, then clicked for more information to get the exact altitude (degrees above the horizon) and azimuth (horizontal degrees clockwise from true north). So this gave me the numbers for where Saturn should appear.

Next, I use one of my absolute favorite apps called Theodolite that uses the camera with on-screen display that shows altitude, azimuth, lets you take screen shots, and a whole bunch of other things. It feels like a professional grade surveyor app. So knowing Saturn should be about 15° above the horizon and 222° SW it was a snap finding where I should be pointing to make sure I had a clear view over the tree line. 

Once the sky got a little darker it was obvious because Jupiter and Saturn are so bright, but I think the planning helped me decide if I should even bother setting up in the backyard or if my view would be completely blocked. 

I was pleased I could get some trees in the foreground rather than just the conjunction against a wash background. Here's what I got...

Jupiter and Saturn taken with DSLR on fixed tripod, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 0.3 sec

Same photo as above with labels added

Screen shot of Theodolite app tagging the Alt/Az of the conjunction and timestamp

I learned from the my comet Neowise photo that if I tweet at Sean Ash he'll sometimes feature astronomical photos on the WHTR Indianapolis channel 13 evening news, and sure enough he asked if he could feature the photo that same night. I'm famous! 

Cassini's Grand Finale Teaser Trailer Gave Me Chills

Illustration from the Cassini Grand Finale trailer. I legit teared up a little at the end. 

After 20 years in space, Cassini deserves this cinema quality teaser trailer for its upcoming 'Grand Finale' death dive into the gas giant (oops, spoiler alert). Cassini is one of my favorite missions, especially because of the quality and abundance of images that are being sent back. I didn't really get into space or the night sky until after Cassini was well on it's way to the outer solar system, so I can't really remember a time when we didn't have Cassini images.

Illustration from the Cassini Grand Finale trailer

The images in the video are obviously computer generated, but they are easily recognizable and they feel very familiar because they are based on actual Cassini photos, so they are at least science-adjacent and seemingly real-ish. In fact, some of the images have direct connections to actual famous Cassini photos from the Hall of Fame.

Let's watch! Go HD and full screen!



As you can see, the trailer gives sort of a highlight tour of some famous Cassini moments. But the illustrations from these moments aren't completely fabricated, they're all based on available photos that you can see online. Check out the illustrations from the trailers vs. some actual Cassini photos...

Illustration from the trailer vs. the actual backlit Saturn photo composite

Illustration from the trailer vs. a now rather famous photo titled Encroaching Shadow from July 28, 2014

Illustration from the trailer vs. Saturn approaching northern summer in this Hall of Fame photo

Illustration from the trailer vs. an actual photo of Titan with it's iconic "smoggy, golden murk"

If you're wondering, here is my best photo of Saturn that I took with my iPhone through my Meade refractor telescope. I recorded a short video through the eyepiece and stacked it in Registax to clean up the image.

Venus, Saturn, and Crescent Moon January 7, 2016

I woke up to a great collection of Venus and Saturn in a fairly close pairing alongside the 7.6% crescent moon on Thursday, January 7, 2016. There wasn't much foreground scenery to speak of - just my neighbor's roofline - but the collection looked cool floating over the houses in the cool morning air. The clear sky was a welcomed sight since we've been having a very rainy winter so far.

Single frame Canon T5i, ISO 1600, 125mm, f/4.5, 2.5 sec

Single frame Canon T5i, ISO 800, 125mm, f/4.5, 2.5 sec

The bright grouping looked like a nice target to try some iPhone photos, so I got out my tripod and adapter and used both the default camera app and Night Cap Pro. Night Cap Pro is great for low light, but the moon and Venus were very bright in this shot. I do like how Night Cap Pro was able to show some scenery with the houses rather than just the moon and Venus.

iPhone 6 photo with Night Cap Pro app, ISO 2000, f/2.2, 4.2mm, 1/2 sec

This is a comparison of the DSLR photo (above) to the iPhone 6 with default camera app (bottom) at f/2.2, 4.2mm, ISO 2000, 1/15 sec showing the crescent moon with earthshine, Saturn, and Venus clearly visible.

Between the two, I like the wider photo with houses for context even though the moon isn't properly exposed and turns into a large white blob. It's kinda cool. It looks like glowing orbs, UFOs, or just a huge star above the house. I try not to post too many photos straight out of the iPhone to Instagram because I know that they're just blobs - I get it - but it's fun to play with and test out what the iPhone camera is capable of without any fancy gadgets or attachments.

Crescent Moon Rising with Saturn and Scorpio

I was up letting the dog out at 3am the other night and saw an orange crescent moon rising over the neighbor's house. Next to it, I saw two brighter stars - but when I went to take a picture of the scene I thought I was getting some crazy double lens flare or something. What were these two extra stars below it? I seriously thought it was some kind of lens anomaly.

Single frame, Canon T5i, f/6.3, 2 sec, ISO 1600, 110mm

Then I hopped on Stellarium and saw that this group of stars was actually Saturn in the head of Scorpio. Like a little sideways big dipper with Saturn, β1 Sco (Acrab), ν Sco, ω1 Sco, ω2 Sco, and δ Sco (Dschubba).

Crescent Moon and Saturn Conjunction January 16, 2015

I was writing the previous blog post and looked into Stellarium to see the separation of Venus and Mercury but I was distracted by the Moon and Saturn in conjunction - I didn't even realize! I looked out the back window and sure enough there they were hanging out in the pre-dawn light.

Refine edge layer composite photo

I tried something a little different with this composite photo (above) and I'm not quite sure I pulled it off. It's definitely borderline tacky, but I'm working on it. It's a composite photo with one longer exposure to show the earthshine on the dark side of the crescent moon, and an appropriately exposed crescent moon photo to show the crater details. Combining them in a believable way is the tricky part!

Above: The crater detail moon is ISO 200, 300mm, f/11, 1/25 sec; the earthshine layer is ISO 200, 300mm, f/9, 1.3 sec with the brightness turned up even more. I used the refine edge tool in Photoshop to try to blend the layers.

Below: This is the kind of composite I'm familiar with, it's a simple crop composite of two different exposures, one for the moon and one for Saturn. In this one, Saturn is at ISO 200, 300mm, f/11, 1 sec; the moon is as ISO 200, 300mm, f/11, 1/25 sec.

Simple crop composite photo

What's That Star Next to the Moon? September 27, 2014

What is that bright star next to the moon? Well tonight it's not a star, it's the planet Saturn. At magnitude 1.3, it's about as bright as Deneb (α Cyg) or Regulus (α Cyg), and clearly stands out less than 3° from the crescent Moon.

Single frame with Canon T5i, f/5.6, 1 sec, ISO 800, 300mm

Connect Four: Saturn Moon Mars Spica Alignment

Chris and I were taking an evening walk around the neighborhood when we saw this alignment of 4 bright objects, starting with Saturn in the top left connecting through the moon to Mars and Spica further to the bottom right.

Canon T5i, ISO 400, 33mm, f/5.6, 5 sec, edited in iPhoto

Third Quarter Moon with Saturn and Alpha Librae (α Lib)

Went out at 4:50am "for the first time in forever" (still have the songs from the movie Frozen in my head) on February 21, 2013. I saw the third quarter moon nestled between the brightest star(s) in Libra and the bright yellow planet Saturn.

Single exposure at ISO 200, 100mm, f/6.3, 1.6 sec

Composite of two images: Background from above and Moon at ISO 100, 100mm, f/6.3, 1/320 sec

To the naked eye I could barely make out α Lib but I knew the moon should be right on top of it. Sure enough, the moon was less than 2º from the pair of stars.

Conjunction: Saturn, Moon, Mercury on December 1, 2013

I have been planning to photograph this conjunction since November 2, and since the close conjunction of Saturn and Mercury was clouded out, I was super excited to have a clear morning to see the moon join the pair. I took a lot of photos to make sure I had something that would turn out, and I played a bit with depth of field looking at the moon through trees.

It was awesome seeing the thin 3% illuminated waning crescent moon, and I can't wait to see the waxing crescent out my balcony window in the evening in a few nights. Not too cold this morning either, here are my best shots with details...

1.3 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, 130mm 12/1/2013 – 6:53 AM

2.5 sec, f/9, ISO 400, 75mm 12/1/2013 – 6:57 AM

1.3 sec, f/11, ISO 400, 300mm 12/1/2013 – 7:05 AM

5 sec, f/11, ISO 1600, 300mm 12/1/2013 – 6:42 AM (position of tower tweaked in Photoshop)

2 sec, f/9, ISO 800, 180mm 12/1/2013 – 6:49 AM

Saturn Mercury Close Conjunction in November (Less than 1° Apart)

In late November, Saturn and Mercury will make a very close conjunction, coming within 1 degree of each other from our perspective. The pair will be low in the SE sky an hour before sunrise.

November 23, 2013 Mercury is about 6° above the horizon to the SE about an hour before sunrise. Screenshot from Stellarium.

Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) is predicted to pass Spica on November 18 as it dives toward the horizon, passing the Mercury Saturn conjunction around November 22-23.

November 25, 2013 Mercury and Saturn will be within 1 degree separation low in the SE to the left of the double star Alpha Librae (α Lib). Mercury will only be about 5 degrees above the horizon an hour before sunrise. Screenshot from Stellarium.

November 26, 2013 Mercury and Saturn switch places, with Saturn now on top and still within 1 degree separation. Saturn will only be about 5 degrees above the horizon an hour before sunrise. Screenshot from Stellarium.

Saturn joins the party on December 1, 2013 - this screenshot from Stellarium shows 7:00am ET from Indiana

5 Second iPhone Video of Saturn Stacked in Registax

My latest personal best photo of Saturn is the result of stacking a 5 second video clip taken with my iPhone through the eyepiece of my telescope. My previous best came from a single frame of the video, but after stacking, I cleaned it up quite a bit! I also stacked a 34 second version of the video, but it ended up creating more problems than it solved.

Result of iPhone video taken through MH9mm eyepiece on Meade 285 stacked in Registax

Solar System Showcase: My Collection So Far

In the past year and a half, I've photographed every planet in the solar system and then some. I've always wanted to put them all together and see my collection all at once - so here it is! Hopefully as I learn to take photos with my scope, I will be able to improve upon this collection. But for now, this is what I've got.

Click to enlarge

Updated 10-8-13 Click to enlarge

Baby Steps with Saturn

Incremental improvement is the name of the game. Here is a collage of two iPhone photos through my telescope eyepiece. This technique is called digiscoping (pointing a digital camera through the eyepiece of a telescope), which is a form of afocal photography (putting a camera where your eye would be behind a complete optical system), and it's pretty useful in limited situations.

The hardest part is holding the camera steady over the eyepiece. While there are some iPhone mounts available, for this latest attempt I used a tripod to hold my iPhone steady looking down through the eyepiece.

My previous attempt is on the left, and I actually took it during my "first light" night out with the scope, and I took it handheld without a tripod. On the right, my latest attempt with the camera on a tripod. I took a 30 second video and then took a screenshot of the best frame. (Yes, I do plan on stacking the video in Registax, but after a few frustrating attempts I called it a night. Not sure if the image is too small to find alignment points, or if the whole thing is in the wrong format).

Saturn with iPhone through eyepiece on Meade 285 refractor

Conjunction Junction: Planetary Alignments for September 2013

I took these screenshots of Stellarium with the date and time of evening conjunctions for the remainder of September. Venus and Saturn will cross paths as Venus continues to travel away from the sun from our perspective, appearing to move south while Saturn gets progressively lower in the west. All times Eastern US.

First Light with my Used Meade 285 60mm (2.4") Refracting Telescope

My grandpa gave me his Meade Model 285 60mm (2.4") Refracting Telescope because he hasn't used it in a long time. While I was in Metamora, IL I took it out on his upstairs balcony to test it out on the relatively dark skies. I was clumsy and couldn't really see anything. I looked at a star and saw a blurry white dot and was very underwhelmed.

After watching a YouTube video on German equatorial mounts, I quickly learned that it's easiest to move only two axes at a time while keeping the elevation and vertical axis (not sure what it's called really) in the start position.

On August 11, 2013 I took the telescope out onto my balcony in Brownsburg, IN to test it out for the first time on the crescent moon. I'm calling this "first light" because it's my first real observation after cleaning and aligning my new (to me) scope!

Meade 285 (D=60mm, F=900mm, f/15) with German equatorial mount

The scope, mount, and tripod set up in my grandpa's study

The scope in pieces ready to be taken back to Indiana

First light back in Indiana, turning the corner into the world of scopes!

iPhone photo with exposure lock (Night Cap)

iPhone photo through the eyepiece

Saturn! Not a great photo, but just enough to tell that it's not a star. Taken with iPhone through the eyepiece.