Tonight I was able to image the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn as the skies finally cleared up!
Ok, so I missed the closest part of the conjunction but better late than never! Nothing but clouds before today and nothing but clouds after today!
This image is what the skies looked like just after the Sun set. The column of light is the light of the Sun reflecting off the ice crystals in the clouds. Cool !
Then a short while later I saw Jupiter and Saturn near a tree and the photography session was afoot !
Here are some closeups I took with a Canon T3i dslr on a Celestron 6" SE SCT telescope
Jupiter is the brightest object with Saturn in the lower right of it with its signature oval-looking rings. Sadly the jet contrails and the turbulent atmosphere here prevented me from getting sharper images of Saturn and Jupiter.
Here you can see 3 of the four largest moons of Jupiter in the closeup shot. The one on the left of Jupiter is the moon Io, then on the other side of Jupiter is Calisto and farther out is Ganymede. The fourth moon, Europa, is actually there but the brightness of Jupiter washed it out.
Finally, here is a cropped shot of Saturn. Again, poor seeing conditions but I am happy I got it at all !
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