Got up early this morning and observed the Venus/Neptune conjunction. They were seperated by around 5' while I was observing them. Nice contrast between brilliant white Venus and cool blue Neptune. Best view was at 150x with both in the field of view
Well done!
I tried to see Neptune but I assumed that it was lost in the glare.
1st clear morning for me for quite a while as well, have been eager to get a look at the morning sky and the planet parade. Was not disappointed either, a lovely view of the early dawn sky and a thin crescent moon below the planets. Didn't have much time, with the approaching dawn , so grabbed the 9 X 60 binos for a perusal of the scene then grabbed the camera and lens' for some happy snaps.
Sunday mornings forecast is not encouraging , for the close conjunction, with thick coastal cloud again. Might have better luck with the weather on Monday morning but the planets wont be as close by then, will still be a fine sight though.
We decided to get up early this morning as a test run for Sunday morning's conjunction. It didn't go well ... clouds, twilight, strong wind and abysmal seeing. Hopefully this isn't an indication on all fronts for Sunday, although playing with the clouds looks like a bit of a certainty. All of the planet images were taken with a 6" SCT with a 2.5x barlow and an ASI224MC camera. The Venus image used an ADC which was probably a mistake as we should have used it for all the images.
Venus and Jupiter were about 1 degree apart this morning. I could just fit them in the same field at 52x when using a plossl EP.
The brilliance of Jupiter is outmatched by the intense brilliance of Venus. Jupiter looks a creamy white in comparison to the clean, white light of Venus.
Below are Iphone images taken at 1x, 2x and 3x settings.
Hi All
Cloudy and rain again this morning so no observation or images possible.
Weather prospects for this area are still looking good for tomorrow mornings close encounter. Just for an added bit of interest, there will be an shadow transit of Ganymede underway as Jupiter rises in the morning, egress at 4:59am EST, so the planet may be high enough to be able to see some detail, depending on the seeing in the morning. A moderate jet stream is predicted so some close ups may be possible.
Yes it’s looking promising! Clear Outside has it clear most of the night but with a bit of low cloud rolling in about 4am so I’m hoping it’s coming from the west!
This morning, I could easily see Venus and Jupiter in the same field at 100x using an ortho EP. I estimated the distance between them to be slightly less than 0.3 degrees.
Venus was not quite yet perpendicular to Jupiter and its moons. I assume this shows that I viewed it in an hour or so before closest approach.
Jupiter's disc looked much larger than that of Venus. Side by side, Jupiter looked to be just shy of twice as large, but it was a different scenario when looking at Jupiter' equatorial diameter. Then it looked slightly more than twice the size. Thus having Venus in view really brought home to me the amount of Jupiter's pole flatting.
Jupiter's size was also flattered by it being a 'full' disc, whereas Venus was distinctly gibbous.
As dawn approach, Jupiter faded into a ghostly resemblance of its former glory. In contrast, Venus continued to shine brightly.
Below as some images taken with my Iphone with settings up to 8x. I also managed, a poor, but educational image by using the Iphone with my 80mm ED scope.
Really enjoy everyones' descriptions and images, despite the obstructions the weather provides. Clear when I went to bed last night, clearish, with a few clouds scurrying by when I looked out the window about 4:30. By the time I assembled the gear and headed out the door the sky was now 7/8 cloud. Gave up the idea of using a scope, set up the camera, Canon 550d, and tripod in the hope of some gaps in the cloud base.
Between 5:00 and 6:00am there were a few fortuitous moments when Jupiter and Venus managed to peek through and managed to grab a few images. The irony is that by mid morning it was mostly clear again, just to thumb its nose at me (us).
I saw Venus and Jupiter in conjunction earlier this morning. Really amazing sight! They almost looked like one giant bright white star. The seperation was 14'. Astronomy is so amazing
Beautiful morning and clouds cleared just before sunrise. Took this shot with the iPhone and a couple others with the scope that I’ll need to process later.
Got blessed with clear nights both this morning for the main event, and yesterday aswell. Went out at 5.00am with my 130mm newtonian and took some pics through it with my cheap Motorola smartphone. Still almost fully dark, couldn't stay out for dawn as I had to head off to work.
Last edited by pgc hunter; 01-05-2022 at 06:00 PM.
The images pretty well sum up how I saw the conjunction over the past week, apart from slightly different cloud interventions due to being 2000 km away from Cairns. Certainly has been enjoyable to watch the dance of the planets in the morning sky. Getting out of bed to do it was not so fun, especially on the cloudy mornings, easy to do a U turn though.
