The Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter


 
Frank in Colorado

Frank in Colorado

TVWBB Super Fan
Did anyone get a chance to see it? Even with the naked eye, one was able to see both planets closing in on each other.

I went to a neighbors, next property over, who has a rather sizable telescope to actually view the planets themselves! The rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter were easily seen. We had about 45 minutes of viewing before the pair descended of the mountain range.

Perfectly clear night for viewing but very cold.
 
Couldn't see them here, due to obstructed view. But our local news had a really good shot where you could clearly see the rings of Saturn.
 
Good for you! My Brother who lives a tad East of us was able to see it but here in SW Ohio we could not see anything due to heavy clouds.
 
Yes, we saw it. Had to walk up on a little rise to get away from the trees. Was able to see both planets. Wish we'd had a telescope.
 
Friend of mine had to drive a couple of hours west to see it, too overcast here to see it. He sent me a shot that he took Saturday night with an 8" scope that showed Saturn's rings and at least 4 of Jupiter's moons.
 
I was ready.....

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Clouds rolled in. :(

The moon looks fantastic in the telescope now, though (since the clouds departed....)
 
Bummer about the clouds.

Nice scope you got there... I may want to look more into getting one because of where I live... no light pollution at all, and my deck, 'cept for the rails is almost complete.

I do not know much about these devices yet... my neghbor said his is a 10" diameter. It did a nice job of viewing... 'specially when he turned it to the moon after the duet was gone.
 
I could see it for a little while yesterday with my naked eye. I got my 5 year old son out to look. He said with hardly any enthusiasm whatsoever, "Yeah that's cool can we go back inside?"
 
Frank in Colorado said:
Bummer about the clouds.

Nice scope you got there... I may want to look more into getting one because of where I live... no light pollution at all, and my deck, 'cept for the rails is almost complete.

I do not know much about these devices yet... my neghbor said his is a 10" diameter. It did a nice job of viewing... 'specially when he turned it to the moon after the duet was gone.
Click to expand...
Frank, telescopes can be a very expensive rabbit hole! :) There are many types of telescopes, different sizes, automated, semi-automated, manual, etc. Great that you have a friend who may be able to help you figure out some of the ins/outs before you buy something. If there's a local astronomy club around you, that's another great source of info and some have equipment they will loan to members. My scope is a Celestron CPC 800 that I lucked into at a decent price on CL. It's an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain scope (which makes it somewhat short/fat for it's diameter. Once aligned, I can choose an object from the hand controller menu, and the scope will automatically slew to that object.....makes finding things up there much easier. The first time I saw Saturn's rings was in a 4.5" scope that I bought for about $50, so there's definitely a range of possibilities!

I would be THRILLED to have skies that are as dark as yours sound. I'm smack in the middle of suburbia, so it's a wonder the light pollution here doesn't hide the moon! :)

BTW, I'm glad you got a look at the moon last night, too. It was stunning at about half full, and I got some crisp, crater-laden views for a while before I packed it in.

R
 
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