Jupiter and Neptune, 28May09

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

I took advantage of the nice clear skies in Brisbane this morning, and had a look at the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction. Both planets and Mu Capricorni fitted nicely in the field of view of my 130mm Newtonian at 50x, and the view was great.

I also took some images using a tripod-mounted Pentax K100D and 70-300mm telephoto (1.5 sec at f/5.6 and 1600 iso). Attached are labelled and unlabelled images. If you haven't had a look at these two planets together, I recommend you get up early and have a look. It's worth getting up for!

Cheers,
Stephen

[iceman (Mike)]

I've been wanting to capture this for a week, but clouds have prevented it!

Nice capture!

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Excellent Stephen. I'd read about the conjunction and been wondering if anyone was going to capture it.

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Originally Posted by iceman

I've been wanting to capture this for a week, but clouds have prevented it!

Nice capture!

Yeah, I've wanted to image this for a week as well but sleep has prevented it
Nice one Stephen

[Liz]

Well done Stephen, they are great!! Neptune comes up sooo blue - beautiful.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Well done Stephen,
A fine record of this conjunction, love the colour of Neptune.

Cheers
Trevor

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Mike, Troy, Adam, Liz and Trevor!

I had planned to put together an animation over the last week or so, showing Jupiter passing Mu Capricorni and closing in on Neptune, but it's been too cloudy. So it was good to finally get a look at the conjunction this morning.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

Neptune is certainly blue isnt it ?
Well done trhere Stephen.

Geoffro.

[bloodhound31]

Wow! That certainly puts things in perspective doesn't it? How HUGE is our solar system?

Way cool photo mate.

Baz.

[hotspur (Chris)]

Ah,thats great work Stephen.

i enjoy viewing your project results,they are good results and

show what "backyard astronomy" is all about,getting out and enjoying

the dark skies and having ago at a few projects like these.

beaut stuff

Chris

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by Inmykombie

Neptune is certainly blue isnt it ?
Well done trhere Stephen.

Geoffro.

Thanks Geoff. I hadn't realized how much of the blue colour I'd picked up until I looked at the image with my monitor at work.

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

Wow! That certainly puts things in perspective doesn't it? How HUGE is our solar system?

Way cool photo mate.

Baz.

Thanks Barry. Yep, it's a big place. That light from Neptune took about 4 hrs to reach Earth! It is impressive to see the all the detail of the Jovian system in the foreground, and then the small blue dot of Neptune off in the distance.

Originally Posted by hotspur

Ah,thats great work Stephen.

i enjoy viewing your project results,they are good results and

show what "backyard astronomy" is all about,getting out and enjoying

the dark skies and having ago at a few projects like these.

beaut stuff

Chris

Thanks Chris, your description of "backyard astronomy" sums it up pretty well!

Cheers,
Stephen

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Excellent work Stephen

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by astro_south

Excellent work Stephen

Thanks Andrew, glad you like it!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Jen]

Good capture there Stephen

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by Jen

Good capture there Stephen

Thanks Jen.

I got another image this morning, and will hopefully get more on the weekend so that I can put together a little animation.

Cheers,
Stephen