Jupiter & Saturn Conjunction – 12/20/2020, 18h23m EST

Camera: Canon 450D (Rebel XSi)

Lens: Canon EF 75-300 @ 150mm f/5.6

Filter: Sunpak UV/IR

Exposure: 1x2sec, ISO 400 saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is just a quick single frame of the Grand Conjunction taken about 24 hours before closest approach. Their separation at this time was 0.13 degrees (1/8^th degree). I just used my Canon 450D on a tripod and a 2-second delay to allow vibrations to settle before the shutter tripped. If you look closely you can see a couple of Jupiter’s moons.  Over the next couple of nights the view will be very similar as Jupiter slowly slips off to the upper left.

Telescope: Astro-Tech 8” f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Guide scope: Astro-Tech 60mm, Meade DSI Pro II, PHD

Exposure: 7x240s (11/8) & 11x240s (11/9), saved as FITS

Darks: 32x240s, saved as FITS

Flats: 32×0.2s, sky flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 2-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop

I have wanted to try this for a long time and I have been waiting for a pair of nights with perfect transparency to give it a try. However, my window of opportunity is closing for this year so I decided to go ahead and give it a try, and much to my surprise… success! This is a composite of two images taken 24 sours apart at about 10:30pm EST on the evenings of Novermber 8^th and 9^th in Cetus. The tiny smudges near the center of this field are the dwarf planet Eris, one of the most distant objects in the solar system. Eris is currently 8.8 billion miles from the Sun, almost 3 times farther than Pluto. It takes sunlight over 13 hours to reach Eris, and another 13 hours for the feeble reflected sunlight to make the trip back to Earth. Eris is about the same size as Pluto and with a more reflective surface it is so cold out there that the surface is likely coated with frozen methane, but unlike Pluto the sunlight is so faint that it is unlikely that the surface has been darkened by the formation of tholins. Shining at an incredibly faint Mv 18.8 this is the faintest object that I have been able to photograph and identify from my backyard

Telescope: Meade 12” LX850 ACF @ f/8, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI071 MC Pro, -10C, Gain 200

Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter

Exposure: 2x(64×0.015sec), saved as FITS

Seeing: poor, 2/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Nebulosity, Registax, Photoshop, Panorama Maker

This is a 2-panel mosaic taken of the waning crescent as dawn brought an end to my first night of imaging with this new to me Meade 12” f/8 LX850 ACF.  The seeing conditions were pretty rough and there was a bit of haze, but I am very happy with the result. Merging the two panels of the mosaic showed that this telescope produces a remarkable flat field providing a uniformly sharp field with almost no distortion. This is a large, fairly heavy telescope that pushes the Atlas to the edge, but it performed brilliantly all night long.

Telescope: Celestron C9.25 @ f/20, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC, Gain 300

Filter: Highpoint Scientific IR Filter

Exposure: 10min (73,200×0.008sec), saved as SER

Seeing: fair, 3/5

White Balance: Photoshop & Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Sharpcap Pro, Autostakkert, Nebulosity, Registax, Photoshop This is part of a test sequence taken during an initial evaluation of a new to me Celestron C9.25. There’s a bit of image shift and mirror flop that I need to get sorted (not unusual for a used scope) so I checked the focus and collimation on a nearby star. I used a 1.5x drizzle while stacking and combined the stacked images using 5%, 10%, 25%, and 50% of the source images to smooth out some of the pixilation. A gentle median filter in Photoshop cleaned it up nicely. The “Y” shaped near the eastern limb is the Mariner Valley. To the upper left near the sunrise terminator you can glimpse Olympus Mons as a slightly dark patch and to the lower right of Olympus lying along a diagonal line is the Tharsis Plateau with Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus Mons.

Telescope: Celestron C9.25 @ f/20, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC, Gain 285

Filter: Highpoint Scientific IR Filter

Exposure: 64×0.01sec, saved as FITS

Seeing: fair, 3/5

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Sharpcap Pro, Nebulosity, Registax, Photoshop

Copernicus and its rays is one of the most beautiful structures on the lunar nearside and can even be seen with the naked eye as a bright region near the center of Oceanus Procellarum. The crater is 57 miles across, but only about 2.4 miles deep, making it about the same profile as a dinner plate. High resolution images of craterlets that radiate out from Copernicus reveal fishbone-like dunes that formed from the interference pattern of shockwaves that were generated during the formation of these crater chains some 800 million years ago. You can also see terraces circling the walls of Copernicus that formed as the terrain subsided after the impact. The smooth flat floor of the crater was selected as a landing site for one of the canceled Apollo 18-20 missions.  This image is one of a set taken as part of the first-light check-out of the new to me C9.25.