Saturn and Jupiter Conjunction Astrophotography - Views from Different Scopes and Cameras

It seems that the great Saturn and Jupiter conjunction of 2020 even made mainstream media as a nice distraction from an otherwise dreary 2020.    

There is a lot of info below, but the cliff note picture that I was able to get is here:

Jupiter and Saturn - Dec 20, 2020 - Celestron Edge 8  HD with Barlow and ASI294

Essentially Jupiter and Saturn formed a line through space with Earth so that both planets appeared to be right beside each other in the night sky.  They were at their closest point next to each other on the night of Dec. 21, 2020.  They had not been with this degree of proximity in over 400 years and over 800 years since humans were able to view them this close.  That is because in the past when they would have been this close, the sun blocked the view.

https://www.today.com/news/christmas-star-will-show-jupiter-saturn-s-closest-alignment-800-t203057

Due to the rarity of the event I certainly wanted to get a picture.  This conjunction will happen again in 2080 so my kids may see it again, but for me I think this was my only shot.   Unfortunately on the actual night where the two planets were the closest, Indiana clouds covered our sky.  However I was able get the scopes out a couple other nights and still see the planets coming together.   Even then the conditions were not the best, but the clouds gave me a couple breaks to see this amazing celestial event.

I love events like this because it gets other amateur star gazers interested in the hobby.  I remember starting out in the hobby of astrophotography and was so lost in what I needed to see something cool in space.    I still have so much to learn, but I hope that by sharing my experiences I can give some info to help any newcomers to the hobby whether just for visual observation or taking photos.  So during this event I took pictures with two different scopes and two different cameras just to give a flavor of how different scopes and cameras see the beauty of space.

If you want to just look at things visually you really just need a telescope, a mount and some eyepieces to get started.  If you want to take photos then you need a few more things and below is a very simple primer. 

Requirement 1 for Photographing Planets: Camera with video capability

Photographing planets is a bit different that photographing deep sky objects like nebula or galaxies.   For a deep sky object you take a many long exposure pictures an object and then stack all the pictures.   Planets though are difficult little buggers because the atmospheric turbulence make getting a good picture extra tough.   But because they are so bright and you don't need long exposures to see planets, the solution is to actually take a video of the planet.  Once you have a 20-30 second video at 15-30 frames per second then you actually have hundreds of pictures.  Each frame of the video becomes a picture.  Then you can run the video through  a processing software like Autostakkert which splits the frames into pictures and stacks the best pictures together.  So if you want to take pictures of planets you need to have a camera that can take video.

Here is an example of when I took a video of Saturn.  You can see how sometimes the planet gets fuzzy and other times it gets a bit clearer.   Getting perfect atmospheric conditions to get a clear photo is tough, but taking a video can help get lots of pictures so you can stack the best ones and discard the bad ones.

Two common types of cameras that many people use for astrophotography are:

DSLR:  Many DSLR cameras have the ability to take videos.  They can easily be attached to a scope to both take still pictures for deep sky objects or videos for planets.  I used a Nikon D5300 as an example DSLR.

Dedicated Astrophotography cameras:  One of the most popular cameras that have been coming on the market are dedicated CMOS cameras.  Two of the most popular companies that make these are ZWO and QHY.  There are so many of these cameras on the market now and it is hard to always figure out what to get.  They come in monochrome versions and one shot color and are a topic all on their own.  Some of these will do much better at deep sky objects while some are specifically better as planetary cameras, but many will do both.  I use a ZWO ASI294 Pro and while better at deep sky objects can shoot video and is serviceable for planet photography.  

Requirement 2 for Photographing Planets:  Telescope

Planets are bright and many can be seen with the naked eye as bright points in our night sky.   At he same time they are still tiny and require some decent magnification.  Even a small scope though can see the rings of Saturn.  It goes without saying though the bigger the scope the better for good pictures of a planet.   I have two scopes to highlight the differences in what you can see.  

The first is a 90 mm refractor made by Stellarvue.  Refractors use glass lens and thus while they give exceptional views both visually and for photos, they get crazy expensive the bigger they get since making the glass for bigger scopes is harder.  It becomes rarer to see super larger versions of a refractor scope.

The way to get a bigger scope for cheaper is to use mirrors instead of glass.  There are many types of scopes that use mirrors and one of those is called an SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain).   The SCT I used is a Celestron Edge 8 HD SCT.  It is a bit more powerful than the refractor, but not as a user friendly due to being bigger and heavier.

Here,  I was getting the scope ready and the focus dialed in for the night with a quick view of the moon that was up in the day sky.

Optional requirement:  Barlow lens

In general, getting more magnification can help get a better view of a planet.  One trick to help increase your magnification is to use a barlow lens.   These are small lens that can be added to your imaging train and can help double or more your magnification.

Here is the Televue 2.5X Barlow lens I use.  One one side is the T-ring that can go right on a camera and the other is the adapter that screws right on the Celestron Edge 8 HD SCT scope.  It also can screw right into the ASI294 camera making it easy to add to the imaging train.  

Now that we have the equipment we can take some videos!

Example 1:   90 mm Refractor (SV90T) with ASI294 Camera

On the night of Dec 9, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn were still a bit of distance way but they were getting closer.  This is where a small refractor scope can get a nice wide field of the sky and fit both planets.  As you get higher magnification you see a smaller piece of the sky and my larger scope would not be able to see both at the same time.   Even besides planets there are many deep sky objects that take up big parts of the sky and these small grab and go refractors are the go to imaging scope.  If you are thinking about getting in stargazing and astrophotography I would always say a good 80 mm refractor is the perfect scope to get and there are many choices on the market.  

I just used the ASI294 camera in this example directly hooked up to the SV90T (90 mm refractor scope).

In this case I just took one frame of the video to get a picture.

The refractor definitely does not get crazy detail, but the wide field of view in nice as you can see both planets even when they were still a bit far away.   While the planets are small, the refractor can still see the rings of Saturn.  If you were using this scope for visual observation, a good eyepiece could get an better magnification of Saturn.   This is the scope I used to visually to see the rings of Saturn for the first time in my life many years ago and it hooked me!!    Even with the wide field picture if you zoon in you can see what you would see with the scope if looking at Saturn.

Example 2:   Edge 8 HD (SCT) with ASI 294 Camera

On Dec 20, 2020, the planets were pretty close and I was able to fit both of them in the field of view with my bigger scope.  

In this example I used the ASI294 camera and no barlow lens with the Celestron Edge 8.  

The planets look a little bit bigger than with the 90 mm refractor.  However they are still pretty small.

Example 3:  Edge 8 HD with Barlow and ASI 294 Camera

Right after taking the video with no Barlow, I added the Barlow lens to the imaging train and took a new video.  That Barlow is a nice way to get some added magnification.  You can see the planets show a little bigger.

I took that same video and processed it through Autostakert and Registax to get the following picture which probably ended up being my favorite.

Example 4:  Edge 8 with Barlow and Nikon D5300 camera

I missed the actual night where the planets where the closest, but got some breaks in the clouds on Dec. 22.  In the case I kept the Celestron Edge 8 HD scope, but replaced the ASI294 camera with the Nikon D5300 DSLR camera.   The Barlow stayed in the imaging train.

The DSLR shows that it can still get a decent video and picture.   The same video was processed for the resulting picture. 

One nice thing about the DSLR is there is usually a "5X" zoom feature that can use the camera to get even more magnification.    The more you magnify the more the atmospheric conditions need to be perfect to get a good picture.   I did not have great atmospheric conditions, but was still able to get a video of the planets in a much more zoomed state using the added camera magnification feature.  I took the resulting video where I zoomed into each plant individually and processed the video in Autostakkert and Registax.

Here is Jupiter with the DSLR.   Again a lot of atmospheric turbulence, but you can see the hints on the banding on Jupiter. 

Jupiter - Nikon D5300 - Dec 22 

The same process for Saturn using the DSLR zoom feature and then processed shows the rings quite clearly.

Saturn - Nikon D5300 - Dec 22

All in all, this was an amazing event.  The fact that both planets got so close and could fit in the same field of view is so cool.  The pictures some other folks in the hobby put what I got to shame, but there is something about taking a photo or seeing something in space from your own backyard that is always special.

If you get into photographing planets taking the video and processing the video is also a learning curve.  I will not spend a lot off time here, but can just a give a primer.

Capturing and Processing Planetary Video and Pictures.

Step 1:   Use software to capture the video.

If using a DSLR:   My favorite software is actually BackyardNikon (or BackYardEOS).  It was built to connect your DSLR to a computer and control it for imaging from a scope.  Once connected it has a "planetary" button.   Hit the button, focus the scope and then hit record.  The movies will be saved to the computer.  Link:  https://www.otelescope.com/store/category/4-backyardnikon/

If using a CMOS camera then Firecapture is my favorite software.   Again just connect the camera to a computer.  Pick the planet you want to capture and you will see the live view.  Once in focus you can record the video that will save to your computer.  Link:  http://www.firecapture.de/

Step 2:  Process the video to individual photos and stack them.

The go to software to load your videos, pull out each frame a s a picture and stack in Autostakkert.

Link:  https://www.autostakkert.com/

Just follow the three steps to get your final photo once you load the video.

Step 3:  Clean the photo up

There are many ways to help clean the phot up a bit.  Many people use RegiStax which can just take some noise out of the picture to make it a bit clearer.  Link:  https://www.astronomie.be/registax/

Load your stacked photo and then just use the slides to help denoise your photo.

Photoshop or Affinity are other software that can help with processing too.

If you ever get a chance to take a peek at the planets through your own scope or a friends one night it is something you will not forget.  

Here were a couple other blog posts I did in the past on planets if you wanted to read more.

http://atransgenicworld.blogspot.com/2018/06/getting-picture-of-jupiter-firecapture.html

http://atransgenicworld.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-summer-of-planets-jupiter-saturn-and.html

Astrophotography: Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

Comets are one my most favorite celestial objects.    It always brings back one of my most vivid memories of childhood.  My dad and I were fish gigging on a creek that ran through our farm in 1997.   As we left that night and came up into an open pasture, Comet Hale-Bopp was one of the most surreal images I have ever seen.  The tail of that comet spanned what felt like half the sky.    I wish I had been able to take a photograph of the sky that night and see that image one more time.

Ever since that comet I have always kept an eye out for the next big comet.  We have had a few that looked like they may have potential only to fizzle out.  There are always comets in our night sky and a couple I have taken photos of with my telescope, but even with a scope they are far way and don't manifest a great tail.  

Then Comet NEOWISE came in 2020.  It was one of the first naked eye comets I really remember seeing since Hale-Bopp.   Comet NEOWISE still pales in comparison to Hale-Bopp, but if you can see a comet with the naked eye even if just barely, then it makes a good photo target with a telescope.

Comet NEOWISE did not stay around very long, but over the summer I was able to get a few images snapped while it was still close to our sun and putting out a tail.   

Stacking multiple comet photos are a bit trickier since the comet is moving much faster relative to the stars in background.  After stacking and processing here is my final picture.

I post all my astrophotography pictures on Astrobin.   Here is the technical card with a bit more detailed info on the picture. 

Here is a bit more info on the comet itself from Wikipedia

I spent a lot of time processing the final picture which consists of multiple stacks of a long exposure picture of the comet.   It is always a balance of pulling out all the detail of the image while not over saturating the image with noise from light pollution.  

As I worked through different processing workflows here were the iterations where I kept trying to pull more detail to get to the final picture. 

Backpacking the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

It has been a tough year with COVID.  Schools, places of business, sports and all matter of other activities have all had to adjust to the pandemic of 2020.   Due to the virus vacation plans may have been adjusted for many of you and it was no different for us.  My oldest son son, Landon, and I were planning to go to New Mexico for a week of backpacking at the Scout ranch Philmont.  This event was canceled and it left us really wanting to still get some time in the outdoors.   The alternative trip we planned was a bit closer and a bit shorter, but still an amazing experience.

If any of you want to plan a backpacking trip out to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore here is some info that may help you plan.  If backpacking is not your thing, then you can just enjoy some pictures highlighting the beauty of the Lake Superior and its shore.

All in all we were 5 adults and 5 teenagers.  It was a 8 hour drive from our home in Indiana to the Lakeshore.   We spent most of the arrival day driving so we planned to drive to a campsite the first night, set up camp and then spend 4 days hiking about 34 miles of the trail.

The full Lakeshore trail is 42 miles.   Some of it is a lot of sand hiking so we cut our hike down to 34 miles.

The Lakeshore Trail that we would hike is actually part of a very big North Country Trail system that spans multiple states.

Arrival

We drove to Munising, MI and set up camp at the Munising Tourist Lakeside Camp.  If you like camping, this is a really nice place for either tent or RV camping.  It is 5 minutes from downtown Munising which is an awesome little lake town.  The campsite also has water and a showers.

After setting up camp and getting a good night sleep it was time to get on the trail and do some backpacking.  There is a shuttle that runs each day to the various campsites on the Lakeshore Trail.   We decided we would would park our cars at the Munising Falls Visitor Center (about 15 minutes from the Munising Tourist Lakeshore Campsite), grab the shuttle and then steadily hike the trail back to our cars over the course of the next 4 days. 

Here is the shuttle service that runs to the various campsites. 

Day 1

We took the bus shuttle to Hurricane, where we would start our hike.  Some heavy rains came down that morning.   Luckily the really heavy rains fell while we on the hour and half bus ride to our starting position.   As we got off the bus rain was still coming down a bit so we threw on our rain gear, covered and packs and started our journey down the Lakeshore Trail.

The trail follows the lake for the entire way.  Sometimes we were in the forest beside the lake while other times the trail opened up to beautiful views of the lake.

After about a 6 mile hike we arrived at our first campground called Seven Mile Group site.   This is true back country hiking.  Once you get on this trail there is no easy way off and there is no cell service.  Besides setting up camp we needed to get water which meant purifying your water so be sure you bring a purifier.  We had 2 of them in order to have a backup.  When you can get water from the lake it was by far the better tasting than when we had purify out of a creek.

Our campsite had a quick trail right to a pristine beach.  As we walked out on the beach to get water we had our first encounter with the stable biting flies.   And yes they bite!!   I heard several yelps as flies bit into us. These flies come out when the environmental conditions are right and unfortunately it must have been perfect this afternoon.   They land in droves on exposed skin and proceed to bite.   Deet does absolutely nothing to deter them.   The best thing is wear long pants, long sleeves and a hat.   We were mostly wearing shorts so we all quickly moved to long pants.   Getting in the water will also keep them at bay.   These flies were no joke, but they only really bothered us on the beach and they would disappear once we retreated a short distance into the woods of our campsite.  

Landon decided he wanted to completely get away from any chance of another fly attack.

Playing some games while we relax from the hike

Finally the winds changed and flies went away.   We all walked down to the beach to watch the sunset and enjoy the nice night.    One thing about the lake is there are some of the most beautiful rocks including polished and flat ones.  The boys spent a lot time skipping rocks on the lake.  

The skies cleared nicely and we waited for the stars to come out while searching for Comet Neowise.  Sure enough we found it right under the big dipper above the lake with the naked eye.   If you looked just right you could see the comet and its tail hovering above Lake Superior. 

Here was Big Dipper above the lake.  The comet is at the very bottom of the picture.

Look closely and you will see Comet Neowise.

The beauty of the stars gave no warning to the storms that would roll through that night.  At about 2 AM we all awoke to what sounded like like a train barreling down on us.  After hearing that noise coming across the lake it quickly arrived to us which came in the form of very heavy winds.  For about 4 hours the wind, the freight train sound, the thunder and monsoon rain did not let up.   Some of us fared better than others that night.  One dad and son had a good bit of sideways rain go through the tent vents and get everything pretty wet.  Another camper was spreading his body in his tent to keep it from blowing up  and away while he was in it.   It was an unforgettable night.  We later found out that some locations with wind tracking measured wind gusts as high at 76 mph making the storm equivalent in place to a Cat 1 Hurricane in places.   It is hard to explain the experience without going through it in a tent, but we were all thankful it blew over and left us all safe.

Day 2

After surviving the storm and a lack of sleep it was time to pack up camp.  We had our packs under a tarp all night, but it did not stop the driving rain from getting to them the previous night.  We had put pack covers on though so they stayed pretty dry.   The biggest lesson we had followed, but was confirmed is prepare for rain no matter what the skies look like before you go to bed.

It was such a nice campsite to leave.  You can alos see the bear box here where we would store our food every night.  

Time to hit the trail and see the sites.  

One of the more odd things we came across on the trail.  Wonder what this story is?

After some hiking we stopped at a beautiful overlook for lunch.

The next campsite we were hiking towards was the Coves Group site.  As we got closer the trail was overlooking many of these coves where the rocks were cut away into these secluded spaces.

We started our hike at the lakeshore, but gradually the trails gains elevation.

As we gained elevation the beauty of the area really started to show.

After close to a 9 mile hike we found our campsite.  Once again we had depleted much of our water and needed to make a water run to do some purifying.   Since we were gaining elevation we no longer had access to the lake.  We set up camp and then walked about a mile to the nearest creek to get water.  The walk to get water had some of the most magnificent views of the entire trip.

This was Spray falls, a waterfall that falls from the cliffs into Lake Superior. 

The sunset literally turned the water a fire red that night.

The weather this night was much more uneventful and it stayed dry.

Day 3

This day was going to be our biggest hike and so we broke camp and set out early.  It was going to about a 14 mile hike to our next campsite.   We were up on the cliffs and the path today would bring us down and back to the lake shore before we climbed once again near our final destination.

The trail really cut close to the edge in places!

One of the highlights on the path was Chapel Rock.  There was a picture of this rock showing how it has changed and lost mass over the years from the elements.

 

We never saw any bear, but there were definite signs.  At each campsite was a bear box to put your food in for the night.   The bear seemed more active in some spots than others including the area around Chapel Rock.

As we continued hiking we began our decent from the cliffs down towards the lake again.  The path moved from a beautiful forest and then to sand.   By the way hiking in the sand is not very easy!

As we hiked through the sand we came upon an area called Miner's beach.  It was a beautiful beach and we stopped to take a breather and get our packs off our backs.   It was like a paradise and before I knew it I had fallen asleep right on the beach.

After resting our feet, taking a snooze and playing in the water for a bit we continued our hike to the next rest stop, Miner's Castle.   The trail to our next stop meant gaining elevation again where we would be above the lake for the most of the rest of our trip.   So the break as Miner's beach was welcome as it was quite a very quick elevation change that was felt with the packs on our backs.   

We made our accent and got to Miner's Castle just in timeto make a dinner..  Miner's Castle is an area open to hikers and driving tourists alike.   Rangers are set up here to give information about the area and there are trails from the parking lot that lead to some nice views.   The biggest thing to see is Castle rock which is another rock formation jutting out above the lake.    

As we took in the view and looked back down the coast we could see where the cliffs jut out into the Lake twice.   The farther jut out is where we started our hike on the first day.   Today's hike had taken us around the second jut out, down to the beach and then back up to our current location.   Looking back across the lake it was neat to see to our progress of the days of hiking. 

Miner's Castle was a big area open to driving tourists and so had a real bathroom!!   It also had potable water so we made some dinner and filled up on water before making our way to our final campsite of the trip.  We had hiked about 12 miles to get to miner's Castle and had about 2 more miles to hike to our next campsite called Cliffs.

Our last campsite, Cliffs!

Time to sit and relax.  We actually passed out campsite and had to backtrack a bit.  After about 15 miles of hiking we were ready to rest.

This campsite had a nice pit toilet back in the woods which was a nice find.  :)   Some luxury living at this site!!!

Day 4

After a good night sleep and some morning coffee around the fire it was time to set out on our last hike of the trip.  Our destination was the Munising Falls visitor center were we had left our vehicles and caught the shuttle on the first day.

The views over the lake were beautiful.

A few waterfalls were on the trail.

As we hiked we found a friend that was real curious about us.

After about 5 miles of hiking we made it to the end of our hike.   

After the hike we all went into Munising and treated ourselves to some some non-dehydrated food!   For lunch we all had Pasties, which is basically a handheld chicken or beef potpie rolled up in a thin pie crust like bread.  wI had never heard of these things, but they are everywhere in this area.   It was so good!!   

If you ever get a chance to hike this trail I highly recommend it. 

Here are a few things I would recommend based on our experience.

1.  Hiking Poles are really helpful

At first I did not think hiking poles would be very useful.  They felt cumbersome and awkward the first day of using them.  But as we started to go up hills, down hills and over muddy terrain they became invaluable.  They gave balance but also really helped your needs on the up and down parts of the trail.  They make really expensive poles but we found the Trailbuddy Hiking poles off amazon worked really nicely.  

2.  Blisters are for real

We all did everything we could to try and prep for blisters and I still ended up getting some.   We all had liner socks and then wool hiking socks.  However some of the guys had liner socks with individual toes.  These seemed to really work as they keep the toes from rubbing and rubbing toes is what caused my blisters.   I will definitely get the toe socks next trip.

There was also some blister paste to put on your feet that seemed to help prevent blisters that we all started using into the trip.

For the blisters I did get, some moleskin really kept the blister bearable to keep walking.  Do not go on a hike without moleskin!!

3.   Have a nice water purifier

We were able to get water from the lake or a creek pretty easily.  Potable water is not accessible for most of the trail so having the purifier is necessary.  I was drinking a 3 L bladder of water and 2 full nalgenes almost everyday.   Having some Gatorade powder or flavored drink tablets to add to one of your nalgenes not only gives some calories, but helps hide any off flavors from the purified water.   The water from the lake definitely tasted better than we we had to get water from a creek.

4.  Have some anti-chaff cream

The main thing to remember is do not wear anything cotton.  Wear clothes that will wick moisture and dry quick.   However as you sweat and especially when it is wet or humid you can definitely chaff.  If this happens be prepared.

4.  Zip-off pants are awesome

We all had zip off pants.   They easily turned to shorts when we got hot or wanted to put our feet in the lake, but could zip back on to pants when it got chilly or the flies came out.   They were great!

5.  Pack plenty of snacks

We were burning 5000-6000 calories every day with our packs on.   We all felt our body craving some calories and we would make snack stops to refill on energy.  Snacks could be nuts, jerky, energy chews, meat sticks, combos, etc.   I thought I over packed snacks, but we ate almost everything.

6.  Pack as light as you can manage.

Watch your weight in the pack.  Every pound starts to add up as the miles add up.  We all averaged around 32-35 lb packs for the 4 days.   The tent was a big part of the weight and then there are things you will want.  Just find lightweight versions of them.   a titanium bowl and mug for example.  We all wanted chairs and they sell very lightweight chairs as well.  Mine was only 1 lb.  Just pay attention to each objects weight as it adds up fast.  This list is really useful if you ever prepare for a hike.  

7. Be prepared for bugs.

Most all of us sprayed our clothes with permethrin before we left.  Once sprayed the effects will last for weeks and through several washings.  It is effective against ticks and mosquitoes and it really worked well.   I never saw any ticks on us and the mosquitoes would buzz around and then leave quickly as long as you were wearing the sprayed clothes.   If you did have exposed skin then Deet still was our alternative.    Unfortunate nothing really helped the flies except covering you skin.  They only bugged us one night thankfully.   Here is what I used.

See everyone on the next hike.