Jupiter and Mars in conjunction

Jupiter and Mars are in conjunction tonight at less than half a degree apart.  This first image was taken with my Canon 6D on my 8 inch Celestron EdgeHD telescope with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at ISO 400.  You can make out some cloud details on Jupiter and perhaps just a hint of surface features on Mars (ok, well, mostly it is just red - it's pretty far away from Earth at the moment).

This second image was exposed longer in order to see the 4 Galilean satellites of Jupiter which are roughly in a line above and right of Jupiter.  This image was taken with my Canon 6D on my 8 inch Celestron EdgeHD telescope with an exposure of 1/4 seconds at ISO 400.

Venus and Jupiter dancing in the evening sky

As Venus and Jupiter were getting very close together this past week, it's been cloudy in Tucson and I only got a brief hazy glimpse of them about 5 days ago.  Tonight on my way home, though, I was treated to the pair dancing in the western sky as well as the Moon rising in the east.  When I got home, I pulled out my Canon 70D along with my 70-200 f/2.8L lens and took some shots.  Here, I've backed the lens off to 70mm focal length to get the surrounding trees and stars.  A little adjustment in the GIMP brought out more details in the sky and a bit of sharpening helped show off structure in the trees.  This exposure was at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 2 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.

Satellites and Domes

I took a timelapse of the northern sky from the porch of the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope and got lots of satellites as the morning twilight was about to start.  In this view a bright satellite glints sunlight (it may be an Iridium flare - it must have been pretty bright) as another one runs almost parallel to it almost straight over the Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall Telescope.  Also visible is the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope dome and the Spacewatch 36 inch dome in that order from right to left.  Low in the sky to the left is the planet Jupiter setting in the west in the constellation of Gemini.  Near the top center is the Big Dipper.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my Canon 70D and an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Looking for Santa

I was observing on Kitt Peak the night before x-mas and setup a timelapse outside my dome.  Here the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope dome is front and center with the winter Milky Way looking like smoke rising from its chimney.  Orion is prominent above and right of the dome as is Taurus near the top of the frame above Orion.  Jupiter is the bright object above and left of the dome.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my Canon 70D with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 3200.

Jupiter

I dropped my sweetie off at the Catalina Observatory with some students for a weekend education program held there at the 61 inch telescope. This view of Jupiter was made with eyepiece projection from the 61 inch (1.54-m) Kuiper Telescope on Mt. Bigelow north of Tucson. The exposure of 1/200 seconds. you can clearly see the red spot, a giant storm that has persisted on Jupiter since it was first recognized in early telescopes. It was difficult to focus the image while hand-holding the camera to the eyepiece. Best image quality was hit and miss as you tried to align the camera with the eyepiece in the dark while focusing the camera lens or telescope.