The Great Conjunction of 2020

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Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years (the last one in 2000.) however this particular conjunction will be especially close - the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! Don't worry, if you miss it there is another close conjunction in 2080!

At its closest on 21st December Jupiter and Saturn will be 6 arc minutes apart (1/5 the diameter of the full moon) which is still easily discernable as two separate planets (some reports would have you believe the merge together into an 'elongated star')

The weather was poor on the 21st, but there was a gap in the clouds on the 20th, the images from the 20th the planets were at about 9 arc minutes vs 6 arc minutes at closest encounter.

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Images by Steve Goldson

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"]Screenshot-2020-12-21-at-17.43.22sdedit Image by Steve Goldson 1/8 sec f5.6. ISO 6400. taken at 18.02. 20/12/2020. (Inset image: 1/8 sec f5.6. ISO 3200 taken at 18.07. 20/12/2020. - Note Steve captured 3 of Jupiter's moons)[/caption]

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Images by Martin Crow

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="637"]S-J Conjunction MartinCrow 2020Dec20 17:06ut Equipment: 80mm equinox @ f15 and DMK41 mono video camera and an old laptop. Location: Top of Dartford Road, Hextable. Taken the day before closest approach due to likelihood of poor weather on 21st. Best views though were had through the eyepiece. Absolutely stunning.[/caption]

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Images by Simon Dawes

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"]The-Great-Conjunction-of-Jupiter-Saturn-2020-12-20-1645 Image by Simon Dawes Skywatcher MN190 (modified), EQ6 Pro (modified) ZWO ASI 1600 MM Pro Bexleyheath England[/caption]

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Leigh Slomer’s Saturn Images

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Images of Saturn are from the same 2 minute long raw format video, but stacked and processed differently. The last version had a 1.5x drizzle applied to enlarge the size.

Equipment used:

•Skywatcher heq5 pro mount
•Skywatcher skymax 150 pro maksutov cassegrain telescope
•celestron 2× Barlow 
•Zwo asi290mc one shot colour uncooled CMOS camera

•Captured with ASICAP for android
•First and second version stacked in registax, the last version in autostakkert with wavelets in registax 
•Final processing in GIMP

Camera settings:

•Raw16 colour space 
•Gain 300
•Exposure time 82000ųs

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"]LeighSlomerSaturn01 Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"]LeighSlomerSaturn02 Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"]LeighSlomerSaturn03autostakkert Image by Leigh Slomer processed in AutoStakkert[/caption]

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Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"]Conjunction of the Moon Jupiter Sature and Mars Image taken by Jim Burchell, in the early hours of 2020/05/12 capturing a conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and the moon .possible Mars far left of the image..[/caption]

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