A Conjunction of Jupiter with the Moon Home


On 13th July 2005, the Moon passed very close to Jupiter, a phenomenon known as a conjunction. The closest approach occurred at about 17:30, three hours before sunset.  This picture was taken 3½ hours later, just as the Moon was dipping towards the roof of my house.  There were planty of clouds about too.  The Moon was 6.7 days old.

Date and Time: 13th July 2005 21:05 UT
Camera: Olympus C-5050
Capture: 1/1.6 sec exposure, focal length 37.9 mm
This is an enlargement of part of a picture taken about a minute before the one above but with a much shorter exposure.  This brings out the detail on the Moon but almost loses Jupiter.

Date and Time: 13th July 2005 21:04 UT
Camera: Olympus C-5050
Capture: 1/30 sec exposure, focal length 37.9 mm
This picture was taken about half an hour later after I had moved to the top of my driveway to get a clear view.  I am amazed to see that I have captured some stars as well as Jupiter.  I am confident of the identification of Porrima (γ virginis - see mouse- over) but I am mystified by the other two stars;  they don't appear to be hot pixels from the camera but there are no stars in those positions anything like bright enough to be captured in this way.
(The line across the bottom of this picture is not a meteor but a telephone cable illuminated by a street lamp.)

Date and Time: 13th July 2005 21:33 UT
Camera: Olympus C-5050
Capture: 4 sec exposure, focal length 28.9 mm
Finally a more "conventional" picture taken with my ToUcam fitted with a 58-mm SLR lens.  Unfortunately I forgot to close the lens down from its full apperture of f/2;  I have found that I generally get better pictures with the lens stopped down to f/5.6.

Date and Time: 13th July 2005 21:57 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K
Telescope: 58-mm SLR lens
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, 1/250", 10% gain, 321 frames
Processing: Registax. 292 frames stacked. Wavelet 1-2 = 10, gamma 0.8
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