2020 Jupiter-Saturn conunction (rdk_CA)

2020 Jupiter-Saturn conunction

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

I was able to obtain this image of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction the night before their closest approach. I located the planets with binoculars just before sunset and then set up my C8 telescope to capture the image. It was quite remarkable to see both planets so close to each other through the eyepiece! I used a planetary camera with a larger sensor (IMX 178), so it was possible to capture both planets at once without a focal reducer.

The two planets were only ~15 degrees above the horizon at sunset at my observation site in Berkeley, CA. This made capturing a usable image quite difficult, even with the use of IR long pass filters (Baader R+IR 610 nm and Astronmik R 742 nm) to reduce the effects of atmospheric seeing. The use of the filters helped somewhat, but it was still difficult to discern any cloud detail on Jupiter.

To generate this image, I first took a full-frame video at 30 fps to capture the position of both Jupiter and Saturn (gain 170.) I then used a smaller ROI at 60 fps to capture Jupiter and Saturn, adjusting the gain until the peak of the histogram was at 60% of saturation. Finally I performed a third exposure to capture Jupiter's moons. For both Jupiter and Saturn, I stacked only 5% of the total frames (about 270 frames.) Finally, I aligned the three captures using Paint Shop Pro to produce the final image.

I also included a stacked image of Jupiter and Saturn as a revision. It more properly shows the relative brightness of Saturn and Jupiter which (at least to me) is more difficult to discern in the eyepiece. In fact, in that image, the I ended up clipping the histogram and over exposing Jupiter (whereas Saturn is barely visible.)

Despite the difficulties, it was a remarkable sight and a good way to finish out a difficult year. Wishing everyone a very happy 2021!

Final
Original
B

B

Description: Result of single video capture (stacked and sharpened.) This more accurately shows the relative brightness of Jupiter and Saturn.

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