Last Night's Astro Image

I have already arranged to meet a friend in a field...

I think the 'first visible Christmas star' line is bit of an exaggeration... Jupiter will be magnitude -1.97, while Saturn will be 0.63. That a difference of 2.512^2.6 or about 11 times, so visible to the naked eye as a single dot they will only be 10% brighter than Jupiter alone.

A solitary Jupiter higher in the sky will make a much more noticeable Christmas star over the coming half dozen years or so.

Neil

Well ... If you weren’t convinced by my last link, Neil, you might like this: **LINK**

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/someone-took-eight-year-photo-exposure-beer-can-180976552/

MichaelG.

As I'll probably be clouded out tonight, I got a p[review of the 'Great Conjunction' yesterday evening, which was gloriously clear, although I had some equipment issues in the middle of a field, that meant I didn't get high resolution images.

I did get a picture of Jupiter once where you could see the 4 galilean moons but you had to know what it was to make sense of it in the first place. Having Saturn in the frame does make it obvious. Nice job.

Martin C

What's frustrating is that I was unable to use kit that woulds have suppressed some atmospheric distortion, which has 'stretched' Jupiter a bit, at least in the red and green images combined for this result.

Say Neil, I've looked all over my railway maps and I just can't find this "Conn Junction" everybody's talking about.

Oh wait ..........

China has found this on the Moon : **LINK**

https://wordpress.futurism.com/china-discovers-unusual-shard-moon

MichaelG.

A few theories abut its origin.

Neil

Despite the awful cloud, I have managed to get a few images over the last couple of months:

Monkey Head Nebula

Flaming Star Nebula

Amazing. I never knew of the Monkey Head nebula, but had seen pictures of the pillars inside it for I don't know how long. Is it visible as such to plain eyesight in - say - a 6" reflector?

Lovely images, Neil

MichaelG.

Very good Neil,

Pictures to be proud of.

Bear..

Nice images Neil

H

Amazing shots.

Steve.

I have just “attended” this presentation, on Zoom : **LINK**

https://youtu.be/HMIvebvnFwo

Megalandslides on the Earth, Moon and Mars

Some very interesting images !

MichaelG.

I bet Galileo would be impressed !

**LINK**

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/see-the-first-images-nasa-s-juno-took-as-it-sailed-by-ganymede

MichaelG.

Neil, have you tried checking your watch against the Jovian moons?

**LINK**

Good shot of Chinese Zhurong lander on Mars

This one was actually from the beginning of June:

My first taken using a camera lens with my astro camera, to get a wider field. It was a Zeiss Sonnar 135 f/3.5.

Neil

And from last night. Look carefully, and you can see the 'North Polar Hexagon', it's quite good going to show this using a 6" telescope.