Jupiter-Neptune 13 April

[N1 (Mirko)]

Heads-up. If you point your optic at Jupiter on the morning of 13 April 2022, you might spot Neptune about 7' from it. Closer than Callisto, at the time. That's not wide at all! Not sure of the exact separation, which is surprisingly hard to google. Entering this event I get pages and pages of nonsense-laden astrology results & havent got time atm to sift through all this crap. Don't know what's going on here. Maybe my cookie jar has gone mouldy or something. I swear I've never called Scorpius Scorpio!!!

Anyway this will be a neat event to observe and image.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Thanks for the heads up. My b'day wish is for clear skies then.

[Tulloch (Andrew)]

Thanks also for the heads-up. Here is a good source for upcoming conjunctions...
https://in-the-sky.org/article.php?term=conjunction

Looks like a good one coming up on the 5th of April, as Saturn catches up to Mars...
https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20220404_20_100

[Dave882 (David)]

Yes thanks for that heads up it will surely be an interesting shot if the clouds can part for a bit! Pretty low in the sky at 15-20 degrees from what I can work out I might need to do some tree trimming first

[N1 (Mirko)]

Got up at 5 this morning, only to find an almost completely overcast sky. Some gaps in the cloud started to appear about half an hour later, and by 6.30, I'd actually had a few really good looks at it. Neptune's blue disk a nice contrast to the Jupiter system. And very close. It did look a bit like a weirdly blue Jovian moon gone astray. Best views at 110x in the 8" dob (82° 11mm EP) and at 120x in the 8" Cassegrain. The latter with a Super Plössl of all things. It still fit in the field. Super nice.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by N1

Got up at 5 this morning, only to find an almost completely overcast sky. Some gaps in the cloud started to appear about half an hour later, and by 6.30, I'd actually had a few really good looks at it. Neptune's blue disk a nice contrast to the Jupiter system. And very close. It did look a bit like a weirdly blue Jovian moon gone astray. Best views at 110x in the 8" dob (82° 11mm EP) and at 120x in the 8" Cassegrain. The latter with a Super Plössl of all things. It still fit in the field. Super nice.

That sounds awesome Mirko! I'm kicking myself because I was looking at Jupiter naked eye this morning, completely forgot about the conjunction. I will try tomorrow morning, they will still be 19' apart then.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Got up at 5am to view Jupiter and Neptune in conjunction. They were 15' apart according to Sky Safari. Very nice, the Galilean moons were strung out in a line, with blue Neptune to the lower left. Best view was at 171x using my 7mm Celestron Luminous eyepiece, Jupiter, it's moons and Neptune were all in the same field of view. A great start to the day!