Close to the Grand Conjunction (LacailleOz)

Contains: Solar system body or event

Close to the Grand Conjunction

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Close to the Grand Conjunction

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

I have been planning an attempt at the Grand Conjunction for a few days, trying to resolve issues like:

(1) can I find a camera setting that allows both Jupiter and Saturn to be captured satisfactorily despite the difference in brightness?

(2) can I fit both planets on the sensor at the same time?

(3) I need to get to a site with a clear view of the skyline, using a portable scope - can I find the planets and land them on the sensor against a bright twilight sky?

My tests showed that I could answer yes to 1 and 3, and simulations in Stellarium suggested that 2 should be OK. However, rain was forecast for the nights of 21 and 22 Dec which meant I had to take my chance last night (20th) when the sky was clear but the planets were still about 11 arcmins apart. (For us in Australia, the moment of closest approach at 6 arcmins takes place when the planets are below the horizon at 5 am on 22nd Dec, so whatever I did was going to be a compromise- the closest approach visible to us being about 8 arcmins).

I captured with a histogram of 85% so that I could be sure to have sufficient data for Saturn, roughly 4X less bright than Jupiter.

The image is a heavily processed one, but everything you see was in the unprocessed stacked image. It is not a composite - I just processed each of the planets and their moons by selecting them and adjusting to make them look their best.

The moons visible are (in order from Jupiter): Europa, Io, Ganymede, Callisto; Titan is visible below Saturn.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
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Close to the Grand Conjunction

Close to the Grand Conjunction

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Image Index:

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Close to the Grand Conjunction

Close to the Grand Conjunction

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