Crescent Moon, Jupiter and Stars Conjunction

[iceman]

This morning there was a beautiful conjunction featuring the waning Crescent Moon and Jupiter, less than 2° away.

Looking through the eyepiece at Jupiter, she appeared to have an extra moon in an odd position - in fact it was a field star, HIP105256. The Galilean Moons were close by - Io was right next to Jupiter, with Europa and Callisto a little further away. Ganymede was in transit but was not observed.

I was able to fit the pairing in the field of view of my Canon 350D when attached at prime focus to my Saxon ED80, so I snapped off a few images before heading to work. Unfortunately I didn’t nail the focus and didn’t notice until I’d finished.

While viewing the images on the train, I noticed that the star 29Cap was egressing from being occulted by the Moon. So I combined 8 frames into an animation showing the motion of the Moon through the stars.

Please click the link to see the animation, the full-size image and to read more.

Crescent Moon, Jupiter and Stars Conjunction (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2009/03/23/crescent-moon-and-jupiter-conjunction-23rd-march-2009)

Thanks for looking.

[mexhunter]

Hello Mike:
The conjunctions of the Moon, with stars or planets, always have a special attraction.
In fact today in the morning here in America, the Moon, as Jupiter and Mars, was very aligned.
Nice photo, Mike.
Many greetings
Cesar

[RB]

You know, the focus looks fine, it's not until you look closely in the high res that you can see it's off slightly but still a fantastic image mate.
Love the earthshine and Jup and the moons, (check out Io) !

Very nice anim too.

:thumbsup:

[AD]

Good resolution. I guess the ED80 is able to cut down glare?

[Quark]

Nice work Mike,
Enjoyed the animation, the motion of the terminator is interesting as is the occultation of the star.

Must get back into some early morning imaging, haven't done any since Saturn has moved into the evening sky.

It shows great dedication to be up early imaging and still having to commute to Sydney for work, congratulations on your efforts.

Regards
Trevor

[DaveGee]

Hi Mike,

It sure was a beautiful sight and you image and animation capture the scene beautifully. Only from my vantage point of Sutton, north of Canberra, 29 Cap was closer to the tangent limb where we observed the graze :thumbsup:, see...

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=42852

I'm gonna drag you along to a graze one of these days...:rofl:

[rogerg]

Great image :thumbsup: