jupiter

Astronomical Events – Then and Now

 in Blog  tagged Christmas Star / conjunction / jupiter / Saturn / Total Solar Eclipse

A few days ago (Dec. 14th) there was a total solar eclipse visible across South America.  Reports from Chile were disappointing, as unexpected clouds blocked the view.  Fortunately, things were a little better in Argentina, where my friend, Leo Cavagnaro, was in just the right spot to see and photograph it.  He reports that it was very windy, and this was due to the same weather system that brought the clouds over Chile, but it was mostly clear where he was.  In the above photo, taken during totality, the Moon neatly blocks the view of the Sun, but we can […]

Pioneer Days

 in Blog  tagged Brownsville / jupiter / Pioneer Picnic

Things are crazy busy here at Wa-chur-ed Observatory, but I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the event we did last weekend, the Linn County Pioneer Picnic in Brownsville, OR.  This was a 3 day event filled with all manner of family fun.  We were located at the end of the vendor area, next to a rock climbing wall provided by the OR National Guard.  That drew a lot of people to the area, but was also a distraction.  In any case, it was great fun to watch kids climb the wall – especially the little ones, […]

You Don’t Always Get What You Want

 in Blog  tagged ASI174 / jupiter / lucky imaging / Lunar / moon / planetary imaging

We had some clear skies here for a few days, and although I’ve been too busy to stay up all night for deep-space object (DSO) photography, I had been waiting for the opportunity to try planetary imaging with the ASI174 camera I got a few months ago, and there was a transit of Io across Jupiter happening that night.  I didn’t get it. Here’s what happened:  The picture above was taken well before the transit started (I think the dim spot just to the left of Jupiter is Io) with the camera attached directly to my 8″ EdgeHD telescope.  This […]

Can You See it?

 in Blog  tagged conjunction / jupiter / venus

As noted in my 2016 Calendar (https://wa-chur-ed.com/astro-photo-printsimagescalendars/), there will be a very close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter tomorrow, August 27th.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), the closest encounter of the two planets will be difficult to see here in North America.  It’s not surprising because Venus is never very far from the Sun, and at this time it’s actually quite close. However, if you wait until just after sunset you should be able to see them just above the western horizon for a short time, and they will still be quite close.  On the east coast the separation will be […]