Dec. 20th, 2020
Almost my first shot of the evening and it turned out great. Exposure pushed enough to bring out Rhea and Titan and then processed to Black and White. I was especially wanting this shot because over the next 30 minutes Ganymede would move to cover the star HIP 99314.
(See next photo)
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2020/12/20 18:13:56 CST | 2020/12/21 00:13:56 UTC |
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
| Lens | Celestron SPC8 | 2000mm |
| Aperture | f/10 |
| Exposure | 1/2.5 sec |
| ISO | 800 |
Now about 30 minutes later and Ganymede has covered 99314. I was hoping for some shots as they moved closer but had shot several photos at 1 second which proved to be just a bit too long causing the star and Ganymede to merge together. Exposure pushed enough to bring out Rhea and Titan.
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2020/12/20 18:45:36 CST | 2020/12/21 00:45:36 UTC |
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
| Lens | Celestron SPC8 | 2000mm |
| Aperture | f/10 |
| Exposure | 1/2 sec |
| ISO | 4000 |
Dec. 21th, 2020
Only three of the Jovian moons were visible this evening as Ganymede is not visible being in line with Jupiter. A slight amount of cirrus clouds this evening made viewing any of Saturn's moons very difficult.
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2020/12/21 18:13:48 CST | 2020/12/22 00:13:48 UTC |
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
| Lens | Celestron SPC8 | 2000mm |
| Aperture | f/10 |
| Exposure | 1/10 sec |
| ISO | 1600 |
A last photo of the sky, Jupiter and Saturn easily visible as the clouds held back enough to get some good shots. For all the folks who were waiting for the "Christmas Star", it wasn't even close to a single point.
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2020/12/21 18:35:48 CST | 2020/12/22 00:35:48 UTC |
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
| Lens | VR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G | at 56mm |
| Aperture | f/5.6 |
| Exposure | 2 sec |
| ISO | 2000 |
Jan. 7th, 2021
Saturn continues to separate from Jupiter and is dimming quite rapidly over the past few days. Down near the horizon Mercury has joined the crowd and is moving to a near triple conjunction on Jan 10th. Visible using the camera live view as well as with binoculars, barely visible naked eye and then only as flashes rather than a steady view.
Mercury elevation 1 degree 28 min
Was hoping the skies would stay relatively clear as the three planets close this weekend however a winter storm moved in dropping a fair amount of snow and leaving the skies rather cloudy
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2021/01/07 18:27:14 CST | 2021/01/08 00:27:14 UTC |
| Camera | Nikon D7000 |
| Lens | VR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G | at 105mm |
| Aperture | f/5.3 |
| Exposure | 1/5 sec |
| ISO | 2000 |
| Location | Rule, TX |
| Time | 2021/01/10 09:23:00 CST | 2021/01/10 15:23:00 UTC |
| Camera | Samsung J7 Cellphone |
