Jupiter & Saturn Alignment
 

Wow, Jupiter with Saturn @ the 11:00 clock position descending is quite the sight.
Christmas Star is back since 1623
(big softball here:) I know if I was an ancient and saw this; I'd do something.

There was a gorgeous waning moon out tonight too.

"Peak" of the alignment is 12/20 - 12/21.

I dig the harvester moon during the fall, good time to square dance with a purty filly and to cap it off with a nice roll in the hay.https://static9.depositphotos.com/10...untry-girl.jpg

Totally locked out by clouds.:(

I guess tonight is supposed to be the best night to see it. We are scheduled for clear skies, so I will make the major effort to walk outside and look up as I haul the trash cans to the curb for tomorrow's pickup.

I noticed Jupiter and Saturn were pretty close a few weeks back when I was doing the trash detail here. I have actually seen all the solar system's planets and one former planet, Pluto with my own eyes. A friend has a 21 inch scope he hauled to the astronomy club's dark site. Neptune and Pluto are pretty dim. It was still a Planet when I saw it, so I can say I have seen all 9 planets. Earth is the easiest to see, look down. ;) The "kids of today" can never see the "Planet" of Pluto, it is just a dwarf planet or planetoid now.

This is an easy one to see tonight.

I'll see if I can catch it tonight. My night photography skills aren't the best...

Don't know if it varies, but for here, the first hour after sunset tonight is optimal. I'll probably forget to go look :D

We saw the planets on Friday just before sunset when we were out to eat. They were fairly close in the sky then - but low on the horizon. Last night didn't see them with the clouds in the area. Hoping for clear skies tonight.

This is what they looked like a week ago, the separation will be even closer tonight (7 degrees I think)

Hopefully Eric Hahl will grab a few spectacular shots

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608583463.jpg

'twas a B-U-T-ful azure sky this morning...now solid overcast. :(

Yes, we are completely overcast in MN, maybe it will clear up a bit, I’ll be out walking the dog and will look.

Clear out here in SoCal.

Hopefully I can get some photos

Lucky...those with clear skies. Not here...

Which direction should I be looking? N-E-S-W ?

SW 30 degrees above horizon within an hour of sunset.

It is really glowing, here.

Thanks!

Moon is up and it's pretty clear here.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608598133.JPG

We got side tracked with dinner tonight and then I realized we needed to head out to find a clearing to observe the event. I got one somewhat decent picture - it shows 2 dots anyway - not anything observatory quality like Eric has posted in the past though. From this picture - it's not obvious just how close they were in the sky.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608600501.jpg

Saw it. Kind of cool. Was hoping for something a little more "Bethlehem-y", but still cool.

I just saw it, pretty impressive. Imagine flying over those beasties in some sort of a spacy craft? Not in our life time, unfortunatly..

We have sent robots and have some cool pictures and scientific measurements. We might get to the moons of Jupiter in 100 years.

100 years? Cool, we can do that standing on our heads. lol! We would deffanatly need a enterprise with warp style speed to get there. I think old Einstein said time and space are to be considered synomonous. example, you have enough power and speed to travel to alpha centauri, but when you return the earth might have aged considerably, and you would not recognize anybody upon your return.:cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608603283.jpg

This is my best effort. Got the moons of the one planet. Our moon was pretty good too.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608603502.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608603502.JPG

Thats pretty good! You must have some expensive professional gear. Good! Thanks!

Yes..thanks Scott...not a prayer of seeing it from here.

Thanks for this. Rained out tonight.

It was very clear here and the two planets were close, but I could see two planets clearly, not one “star” or anything that makes me think it is special. Just two planets close together.

What is special is that you have never, and will never, see the two brightest planets that close together. No one ever in history has ever seen Jupiter and Saturn in the same eyepiece until this.

Only cheap websites wanted you to think that it was any more special than that.

Honestly, I was expecting a brighter spectacle but it was kind of a letdown. Still it was cool to see the two planets side by side.

Same here. It was a bit underwhelming, compared to the hype. But cool. I liked that I could see three planets at once and imagine our place in the solar system.

I'd like to see a photo from a telescope powerful enough to show, in one frame, Jupiter and Saturn with more detail like Jupiter's stripes and Saturn's rings. I don't know if you can zoom in that close and get that kind of detail in one frame.

It takes only a few years to travel to Jupiter. We have sent multiple probes that way, Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, New Horizons.... The only reason we would go in person are the moons. Europa is the most probable place we could find organic life. Its a big ball of water covered with ice.

Water is the key to getting to the planets. Not speed. One part of the upcoming Artemis 3 mission is to land near our moon's south pole to find ice. Then a lunar colony.

Then on to the Martian poles.

Einstein, gravity and time dilation are a whole other discussion.

Look at the above photo on your phone
and expand it. You can see the smaller one - Saturn looks flat because you're seeing it's rings. Look closely at Jupiter and can three moons. Pretty spectacular.

I played with the image this morning in my rudimentary photo program.
I think what most people forget is that these are not light emitting bodies. All we're seeing is reflections off them since they are planets.
I don't know if this will help or not:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1608657324.jpg

Jupiter bottom left? Moons?

We went out and saw them tonight. It was totally cloudy last night. Saturn was to the right and lower than Jupiter, but about as far apart as in Scot's photos. Those photos are fantastic BTW!!

Saturn at about 5 o'clock tonight. Any have pictures of the jupiter moons tonight?

Yes, Brightest is Jupiter. Next brightest and oval is Saturn, and small dots, roughly lined up across Jupiter are the Galilean moons.

Where/why anyone thought that they'd advertise this as the Christmas Star or whatever it was being called is silly. I guess it got folks to look up, but I'm sure it was also a disappointment to most folks that were expecting more.

Through my scope it was nice. Trying to put the phone up against the scope eye piece isn't really the way to do it, but it's what I had available at the time.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1609112728.jpg

These are my better shots. From a 10” reflector through my phone. It was hard to shoot due to the disparity in brightness between Jupiter and Saturn.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1609117832.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1609117832.jpg

Moon was out so why not?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1609117832.jpg