The Great Conjunction: My Results
- Siddardh Budamagunta
- Dec 24, 2020
- 3 min read
One of main things I was worried about prior to the Great Conjunction was cloud cover. Luckily, there were no clouds and I was able to see and take pictures of the Great Conjunction on the 21st and 22nd, so here’s how it went.
On the 21st, I prepared all my gear and went to a nearby cricket field with great views to the southwest. The ground was wet, but I was fine since I remembered to bring a mat. I set up by 5 PM and eagerly waited for Jupiter and Saturn to become visible. Soon around 5:25, I faintly saw Jupiter, and I quickly pointed my Dobsonian telescope at it. It was quite beautiful, I was able to see Jupiter and Saturn at the same time. After admiring it at low zoom for a few minutes, and letting my family see it, I increased the zoom. That’s when I realized that things were not as they seemed.
At low zoom, Jupiter and Saturn were really crisp and clear, but when I increased the zoom they were blurry and showed very little detail. I was experiencing poor atmospheric seeing. Atmospheric seeing is a measure of how much atmospheric distortion there is, and this distortion is caused by turbulence in the atmosphere that scatters light. Since the light gets scattered, instead of coming in parallel lines from the light source, it comes from all directions and causes the image to become blurry. Poor seeing had been forecasted for the 21st, but it was worse than I expected. I managed to take 6 videos and plenty of pictures before Jupiter and Saturn set, but none of them were that great. I tried processing the videos but the end product was always blurry. I originally wasn’t planning to take any pictures or videos on the 22nd but my bad luck the day before meant that I wanted to try again.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, I got of my telescope, and put on the hill near my house. I had also planned to show my friends and family the Great Conjunction that day so I made sure to get it ready by 5 PM. I showed my friends Jupiter and Saturn and we had a good time. Eventually around 6 PM, after everyone had looked at the Great Conjunction, I set up my camera. The conditions that day were slightly better and the planets looked decent. I took 2 videos and a couple more pictures before heading inside.
The next day, I processed the videos to create an image. It came out pretty good, but there were some problems: Saturn was too dim, and I could barely find Jupiter’s moons. I decided I needed to do something, but I wasn’t sure what. Today, I decided to make a composite image, which is an image that is made from multiple different images. I did some editing and combined an image where Saturn was bright enough, with an image where Jupiter was the proper brightness, with an image where the moons were visible in order to reach the end product.
I managed to get detail on Jupiter, make Saturn look bright enough, and make the moons visible. I was pretty happy with it, since I even managed to get Saturn’s moon Titan. I really enjoyed the Great Conjunction, and I hope that all of you did too.
Great job on your findings. A once in a lifetime experience.
Callisto :
Orbital period: 17 days. Age: 4.503 billion years
Callisto is surrounded by an extremely thin atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and probably molecular oxygen, as well as by a rather intense ionosphere. Callisto is thought to have formed by slow accretion from the disk of the gas and dust that surrounded Jupiter after its formation.
Callisto has an ancient, cratered surface, indicating that geological processes could be dead. However, it may also hold an underground ocean. It's unclear if the ocean could have life in it because the surface is so old.
Callisto was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei.
At 4821 km in diameter, Callisto has about 99% the diameter of the planet Mercury but only about…
Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar system at nearly 11 times the size of Earth and 317 times its mass !
Jupiter has 53 named moons and another 26 awaiting official names. Combined, scientists now think Jupiter has 79 moons ,including 1 that may collide with other Jupiter moons, according to astronomers. Jupiter has been described as a miniature Solar system by itself.
The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were first seen by Galileo Galilei in December 1609 or January 1610, and recognised by him as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610. From top to bottom, the moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Europa is almost the same size…
yes really good, I could not see here, but enjoyed seeing your photo and description. good continue. happy astronomical findings.