Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
Taken by Eric Harris on December 21, 2020 @
Milford, Ohio, USA
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Details:
Tonight I had something happen that, astronomically speaking, might be the best stroke of luck I ever have for the rest of my life. I witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime close approach of Jupiter and Saturn during a freak occurrence of clear skies, right here in Milford, Ohio.
In this photo, you can see the rings of Saturn and the cloud bands of Jupiter at the same time. The Galilean moons of Jupiter, as well as Titan, Rhea, Dione, and Tethys (Moons of Saturn) are also shown. Near middle and upper left are two stars, each about 9th magnitude, that also showed up unexpectedly for the event. I tried to do my best to approximate what was seen through the eyepiece - you could very much see both planets simultaneously.
The last time the two giant planets came this close, we were still debating whether the Sun was the center of our solar system. Now, we live in a technological age, in which phenomena just like this one can be photographed and accurately studied. I feel truly lucky to live in this age of budding technology and to be among the first people in human history to record photographically two planets in such a close approach.
Time this image was taken:
21 December 2020 @ 5:58PM EST
The gear I used to photograph it:
Vintage Celestron 5 telescope
ASI462MC camera
Photographer's website:
https://www.facebook.com/eric.harris.9/
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