The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is tomorrow. But that means they are pretty close today, so we had a look.
I spotted Jupiter immediately, and was looking for the fainter Saturn nearby, but couldn’t see anything. So I looked through my binoculars at Jupiter, and Saturn popped out, so close, just above Jupiter! Wow!
I still couldn't see it with the naked eye, even knowing where to look, because it was so close to Jupiter it was being drowned out. (My other half could see it, but he has better eyesight than me.)
Here are a couple of (highly cropped, but unenhanced) photos, taken with a Canon EOS 20D and a Canon EF 100-400mm zoom lens.
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| 17:32 GMT looking west; 400mm focal length; f/5.6; ISO-1600 equivalent;1s exposure |
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| 17:35 GMT looking west; 260mm focal length; f/5.6; ISO-1600 equivalent;1s exposure |
When we saw these photos, we went, “Wow, are those Jupiter’s moons?” Then we zoomed in, and saw a very faint dot to the right of Saturn, almost invisible, but in the same place on both photos: “Wow, is that Titan?”
So we went to Stellarium to find out.
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| 17:30 GMT: Jupiter, its four Gallilean moons, and a star in line to the left, below Saturn and Titan. |
So, yes! We had indeed seen Jupiter (naked eye), plus very close-by Saturn (binoculars), and then plus Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Titan (photography).
And tomorrow is conjunction, so Jupiter and Saturn will appear even closer together in the sky!
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