Jupiter Saturn conjunction with 7 Moons (Bruce Rohrlach)

Contains: Solar system body or event

Jupiter Saturn conjunction with 7 Moons

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Jupiter Saturn conjunction with 7 Moons

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

2 days prior to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, from Phillip Island, Victoria 19-12-2020.

8 inch/f5 Newtonian, ASI1600mm Pro - Luminance channel.

The detailed inserts (top left and bottom right) where taken July 2018 and June 2020 and are for reference only. The central part of the image shows the approaching conjunction with closest approach on the 21-12-2020.

I was more interested in capturing the moons of the 2 gas giants rather than the planets themselves, so I had to ramp up the gain to capture a few of the moons that were in the mix. I could have ramped the gain up higher still and captured more moons, but would have radically expanded the signal from Jupiter and Saturn that would have destroyed the aesthetics of this image. Jupiters 4 largest moons out of 79 in total (the Gallilean moons) are seen here: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa - with Europa the best candidate in the Jovian system to host microbial life in its warm subterranean ocean, a hidden ocean (below its icey shell) that holds more water than earth's oceans combined.

The two largest moons of Saturn, Titan and Rhea, are also visible out of 82 moons so far identified in the Saturn orbital system. Titan is larger than the planet mercury, and is the only solar system body other than the earth known to hold liquid oceans, lakes and rivers on its surface. It has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and oceans of liquid hydrocarbon, primarily methane and ethane.

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