Saturn

Saturn captured in the thick atmosphere of Earth as it falls nearer to the horizon. The cloud bands are not crisp and the Cassini division is not visible due to the turbulence added by our atmosphere, however, it's still Saturn. Always beautiful.

Conjunction

Another shot of the December 21 conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.

Conjunction

The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21, 2020. The apparent position of Jupiter and Saturn next to each other (conjunction) in the sky has not been seen this close for approximately 400 years. This was a truly once in a lifetime event. And this photo captures it almost exactly as it looked to the eye through the eyepiece. Taken with a TeleVue 101is at 540mm, with 4x Powermate.

Astro View

A view of the planet Saturn in the eyepiece was possible between the clouds.

Occultation

Another occultation of the planet Saturn by the Moon. This was just an hour ago here in Mount Isa, at 8:50pm.

Moon Rings

Just for effect I blacked out the Moon with a simple fill tool in this shot from the Saturn occultation. The result is the Moon appears to have rings.

Saturn Reappears

Reappearing from behind the Moon, Saturn emerges as if nothing ever happened.

Lune

The Moon on the night of the Saturn occultation, May 14. This is a high dynamic range composite made from three frames with exposure bracketing.

Occultation

The Moon occulted Saturn briefly last night (Wednesday 14th May) by passing in front of the ringed planet. This was my first attempt at imaging an occultation. It worked. The view through the eyepiece was more remarkable than the photo does justice.

Saturn

The rings of Saturn are tilting into view again. This was taken last night, the air was not very still and the detail and colour is lost. This was comprised of a stack of about 2050 frames from a video file using Lynkeos image stacker.

Five Planets

In this photo you can see five of the eight major planets as seen from Sunset Oval. At the top is Saturn, then lower down is Mars (between the two and left is the bright overexposed moon). Below that is the bright Venus and right near the horizon above the tree is Mercury. Then Earth. You will need to view the larger size image to see Mars more distinctly.

Saturn

Saturn from the Astronomy Group of Mount Isa's observatory. A stack of approximately 600 frames using Lynkeos.

Smile

Saturn, as seen from Mount Isa.