Venus Jupiter Conjunction 2nd March 2023

Venus and Jupiter are the two brightest planets in the night sky. They are visible to the naked eye without binoculars and are easily distinguishable even for the casual observer.

 

Venus appeared much brighter than Jupiter during the conjunction, however, they were both clearly visible to the naked eye in the early evening sky.

 

Thanks to the relatively short orbit of Venus (225 days) coupled with Jupiter’s 12-year orbit, the pair reach conjunction roughly every 13 months.

 

In this picture Venus is above Jupiter and you can clearly see the four Galilean moons of Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io. If you expand the picture to full size you will even make out some of the background stars.

 

Equipment Used

 

Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at gain 101, temperature -10C

Filter: ZWO UV/IR Cut filter

Focal reducer: William Optics 0.8x 2.00"

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam

Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm

 

Stacked from:

Lights 4 at 20ms, gain 101, temp -10C

Flats 30 at 150ms, gain 101, temp -10C

DarkFlats 30 at 150ms, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4 and Topaz DeNoise AI

 

 

Done