[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

I managed a successful daylight observation of the conjunction today.

The heavy cloud banks parted at about 4.00 this afternoon. My scope had already been set up for most of the day, ever hopeful that the heavy cloud would clear. At 4.30 I could see Jupiter quite clearly through the thinning cloud. It took another 15 minutes before the sky was clear enough for me to spot Saturn. It was a wonderful sight in the one field of view only 24 hours from the closest approach. Jupiter was sharp with the main bands clearly visible. Saturn and it’s rings were also sharp and well defined, but much fainter than Jupiter. No moons visible, of course.

Then the cloud rolled back in and obscured everything.

At around 7.00 the clouds started thinning again, so I sat patiently for a break in the clouds. At 7.35pm I managed a three minute sighting of the pair. With the Sun now much lower in the south west there appeared to be better contrast and the view of the two planets was sharper and quite special.

Vixen NA140SS with LVW13 giving 62X and 63 arc mins FOV. No filters.

I was quite pleased with this result. I had always planned to complete a daylight observation of the conjunction as close as possible to the point of closest approach. The closest approach for this conjunction happens about midday tomorrow. I’ll try then but the cloud forecast is abysmal.