Announcement: very close Venus-Jupiter conjunction

[skysurfer]

On Aug 28 at 2h UTC Venus will be only 4' away from Jupiter.

I saw both at 12:00 UTC in full daylight with an 80mm scope already less than half a degree apart, despite hazy sky.

In Australia (particular NSW/VIC/Qld), conjunction takes place Sunday morning around noon and will be visible using a small scope in full daylight. In WA they will still be low at closest approach.

In the US the actual conjuction will be visible shortly after sunset if you are not too far North (like me).

In South America it will be better: the ecliptic makes a steep angle with the horizon, so both planets will be well visible near the closest approach. In South Africa as wll but the planets will still be further from each other after sunset.

[doppler]

Easily fitted in the field of view at 1350mm fl. Here's a quick snap for my scrap book taken at 1.30 pm 28th

[Dennis]

Thanks for the heads up, I was thus motivated to try to record this event.:thumbsup:

Just before midday on 28th Aug 2016, I was able to record the close junction of the mighty gas giant Jupiter and the brilliant Venus.

I used a Tak Mewlon 210 with a ZWO ASI174MM at the prime focus and recorded two captures; one exposed for the overwhelmingly bright Venus, the other exposed for the much dimmer features of Jupiter.

I processed each AVI in AutoStakkert!2 and then combined the final frames in CS6 to cater for the enormous brightness range difference between these two popular solar system bodies.

It was quite thrilling to see the two planets sparkling like diamonds set against the deep blue skies in the eyepiece of the Finderscope, with Venus prominently outshining the much larger Jupiter.

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

Nice work, Dennis!

Al.

[h0ughy]

masterclass!!!!:bowdown::bowdown:

[Dennis]

Thanks Al and Dave, I appreciate your comments.:)

Thanks also to skysurfer for the heads up – I would have missed this!:thumbsup:

Focusing was a bit of a challenge. Would have loved to have had a peek through the main ‘scope using an eyepiece, but I had to settle for the finderscope spectacle as I couldn’t find my eyepiece box – it’s been such a long time since I actually looked through a telescope.:rolleyes:

Cheers

Dennis

[Derek Klepp]

Well caught Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Derek.:)

It’s a shame that I couldn’t tease out the Galilean moons too – that would have been nice!

Cheers

Dennis