The Great Conjunction (Dec 21, 2020)

 

Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction Photo

 

This was taken 00:45 UT, Dec 21, 2020, some seventeen hours before the time of closest separation. It's way over-exposued for the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (not to mention Jupiter and Saturn), so it shows objects much fainter. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is listed as being magnitude 8.2 to 9.0 (and probably closer to the latter, fainter value at this time), so that might be it to the right of Saturn. My back-of-the-envelope calculation for the limiting magnitude of this photo is ~8.6, so it should be right at the limit.

From left to right (east to west) the Galilean moons at this time were Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa.

 

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©2020, Chris Wetherill. All rights reserved. Display here does NOT constitute or imply permission to copy, republish, or redistribute my work in any manner for any purpose without prior written permission.

 

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