The Great Conjunction of 2020
After cleaning up the mini snowstorm, I made my way down to Dallas Road hoping to see the Great Conjunction, perhaps a day late for the smallest separation but still delightful to see in binoculars.
Tonight the pair were separated by 1/6 of a degree and indeed were very pretty in 8x42 binoculars. Jupiter appeared first and Saturn blinked in and out as dusk progressed.
The landscape shot makes the two planets appear as a bright singular object. This is due to apparent celestial movement as the 30 second exposure exceeded a stationary exposure without tracking. In theory an exposure of 15 to 20 seconds would have been better but I still like the base image as it captured the mood of the event for me.
This inset was a separate tracked image of the planets as they appeared side by side with their satellites.
The meteor streak was a bonus, I'm not sure if it belongs to a particular meteor shower or perhaps a rogue meteor.
Landscape image:
Camera: Nikon Z6
Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70/4 Zoom set at 26mm
Sensor ISO: 200
Exposure: 30 seconds at f/4
Inset image:
Camera: Nikon D7200
Lens: Nikkor 300/4 AFS
Sensor ISO: 400
Exposure: 10 seconds at f/4
Tracker: Star Adventurer
Processing: Adobe Photoshop CC 2021