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Venus and Jupiter

Camacha

By Camacha
in Science & Spaceflight

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Camacha

Camacha

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As some might have noticed and others might now, Venus and Jupiter are exceptionally close together in the sky. They are actually close enough to see quite a difference from day to day. Yesterday Venus was bottom right, with Jupiter top left, while today they are almost vertically lined up. To me, the fact that Venus is closer to the sun and Jupiter further only adds to the excitement of watching them line up so neatly.

Have you seen the conjunction yet?

vannacht-venus-en-jupiter-samen-aan-de-hemel.jpg

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LordFerret

LordFerret

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I was really looking forward to seeing tonight's conjunction, but we've very cloudy overcast skies ... so no viewing for me. The past few days we've had clear skies at night, so I'd been watching the lead-up. Disappointed. :mad:

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vger

vger

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Saw them while driving tonight. Made me do a "what the heck was that?" kind of doubletake, before I remembered what it was. At the edge of my field of vision, it looked like a solid line of light pointing straight down. For a celestial event so simple, it's a really neat sight.

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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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I was able to capture Jupiter, Venus, Ganymede and Europa (at least) in several images shot through a 300 mm lens mounted on a DSLR. Callisto and Io may be there too but I'll have to look for them after I download the images to my computer. I'll post them here tomorrow.

Here's one of the photos. Frida Space's composition is better for sure, but I didn't have a decent foreground for my photo so I went for a zoomed in shot. I think I would have needed a graduated ND filter to block some of the light from Venus if I were to succeed at exposing them both more uniformly. It was also complicated because I have a crappy tripod and I don't have a tracking mount so exposures had to be short (i.e. I had to use high ISO and large aperture). Venus is way over exposed and Jupiter just looks like a white blob, but you can see the four Galilean moons around Jupiter:

MgdMRZ4.png

Edited by PakledHostage
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Businfu

Businfu

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I've been watching them closely for the last few nights, and then last night BEHOLD! Both could be seen in the same field of my 700mm newtonian! It was an awesome sight. I made everyone I could find check it out. Alas... I have no good way to take photos through my scope. I spent a good half hour trying to line up my iphone to the eyepiece, but the pictures are total crap. Does anyone know if there any good mounting attachments to stick a phone on a telescope?

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AngelLestat

AngelLestat

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I was able to capture Jupiter, Venus, Ganymede and Europa (at least) in several images shot through a 300 mm lens mounted on a DSLR. Callisto and Io may be there too but I'll have to look for them after I download the images to my computer. I'll post them here tomorrow.

Here's one of the photos. Frida Space's composition is better for sure, but I didn't have a decent foreground for my photo so I went for a zoomed in shot. I think I would have needed a graduated ND filter to block some of the light from Venus if I were to succeed at exposing them both more uniformly. It was also complicated because I have a crappy tripod and I don't have a tracking mount so exposures had to be short (i.e. I had to use high ISO and large aperture). Venus is way over exposed and Jupiter just looks like a white blob, but you can see the four Galilean moons around Jupiter

Or just wait until is more night and use a normal ND but blocking half of the shoot, or that light is from the city?

Also longer exposes can notice very quick the earth rotation without tracking.. You did a great photo, so I cant said it will look better than that.

Because 300mm still is not enoght to see the sphere shape, not sure with digital zoom and tracking.

I would love to have some ND filters, but they are quite expensives, so to normal photos I just try to remplace them with a good HDR software.

Beautiful! I'm going to share with you this photo made by Giorgio Albarello, obviously it's two separate images put together:

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/t31.0-8/11698864_919984481394642_8943005997040108910_o.jpg

For those wondering how exactly these planets are lining up:

http://static.tweakers.net/ext/f/8E0fim1f5ODNRqf5g7LWz8Xy/full.png

Thanks for those post, helps to understand the shadows.. I guess now would be a good launch windows for Venus.

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Camacha

Camacha

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What is name of this software?

I simply did a Google search for the current planetary positions and picked the first decent looking one that did not mention the zodiac signs, which is this website. Apparently there is a free phone app too.

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Businfu

Businfu

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What is name of this software?

Not the same software but there is a great little iPhone app called Orrery that is, well... an Orrery. You can set the time and date and watch as the moon and planets do their thing. It's not to scale or anything, but great for just getting a general idea of where stuff is.

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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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There's also NASA's Eyes on the Solar System program that is free to download. It has the added feature that it shows you where lots of satellites and all of the robotic probes are currently located. It's interface is a lot like KSP's map view.

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monstah

monstah

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I love how simple things like that are so pretty to see. I look up every day. I live in a city that has low spaced buildings and a great sky field of view, plus really clear skies most of the year.

I live in a more lighted metropolitan area now, no backyard, so my 5 inch newtonian has been gathering dust, but I still followed the two planets' dance during last month by naked eye.

Stuff like that is always pretty.

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vger

vger

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When is the nearest conjunction of the two planets actually ? Already passed ?

They're definitely moving apart now, based on what I saw last night.

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