I went out yesterday morning when it was finally clear to take a shot at the Perseids meteors, as well as the aurora if it bothered to show. Same ol’ same ol’ – I saw a couple of small and brief meteors, and captured the barest streaks in images, but not at all worth the effort on either count. It did not help that the humidity was high and cutting down some of the ‘seeing’ for the evening.
But while out there, I watched a bright star rising over the lake, eventually realizing that it was a pair in close proximity, and pretty bright – they reflected well in the water while the air was still.
That’s the two of them center frame, while Pleiades is the cluster to the right (which I tended to keep in the frame, because I had it in my head this was the Pleiades storm and not the Perseids – that’s higher and to the left.) Later that day, I pulled up Stellarium to see what I’d been seeing and discovered that it was Jupiter and Mars in close conjunction – and that they would be in even closer conjunction this morning. How did I not hear about this?
But before we go, we’ll take a full resolution look at that frame.
Most of the streaks – the ones all going the same way – are simply because this was a 30-second exposure and that’s how far they move because of Earth’s rotation. But the other little streak that isn’t in sync is a meteor, one that I never saw and likely wouldn’t have even if I’d been looking right at it, since it was way too short.
So, yes, I did get out this morning and chase the pair again, this time when they were roughly a moon’s width apart in the sky (our moon, not any of the others.)
That’s Mars at top, and Jupiter with (from bottom) Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto attending. This is the best that I’m going to get with a 600mm lens, but at least it shows the proximity quite well.
I keep saying this and it keeps not happening (like how I said that as if it’s out of my control?) but I really need to get the telescope and tracking motor happening. About an hour from now, Io will be throwing its shadow across Jupiter’s face, right along the Great Red Spot, which would be a cool pic. But to get Jupiter big enough in the frame to see those details, it would be moving quite noticeably, and I’d have to counteract with the tracking motor to snag the exposure. One of these days…