Jupiter and Saturn, on the eve of their rare "Great Conjunction," shot here on December 20, 2020 from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The two planets are very close here, only 8 arc minutes apart, just 2 arc minutes more than at closest approach the next night (which was cloudy!). Even so, they are resolved in this image with an 85mm lens, and were easily resolvable to the naked eye. Some of the moons of Jupiter are visible, particularly Callisto and Ganymede to the left of Jupiter. This was a superb night at the Park, with perfect skies and a mild temperature of only 0° C and no wind or frost. Illumination is from the twilight but also moonlight from the waxing quarter Moon off frame to the upper left. This is a blend of tracked (for the sky, to prevent star trailing) and untracked (for the ground) exposures: 7 x 30 second exposures for the ground (to bring out foreground detail) at f/2.8 and 5 x 8-second exposures for the sky at f/4, all at ISO 400 and with the Rokinon 85mm lens and Canon EOS Ra camera. The camera was on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker. Stacking the tracked shots blurred the moving clouds and smoothed noise. Stacking the ground reduced noise. I shot this well past traditional "blue hour" when there was still colour in the sky to the camera, but the sky was dark enough to show stars, and the ground was beginning to light up with moonlight, highlighting the snow and ice patches.
This is the grouping of the 3-day-old waxing crescent Moon with the close pairing of Jupiter and Saturn on December 16, 2020, as seen from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on a mild winter evening with clouds parting just enough for the view. It waas nip and tuck getting any shots this night and getting a clear shot of both the Moon and the planets was tough! This is a stack of 7 tracked exposures for the sky, all 6 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 200 blended with a stack of 4 untracked exposures for the ground, all 30 seconds at f/4.5 and ISO 400, with each set stacked with Mean stack mode to reduce noise. But stacking the sky blurred the cloud motions for a nice soft effect, while leaving the Moon and planets sharp as the camera was tracking the sky for those images. The longer static exposures for the ground brought out the foreground details and colours. A dodge and burn layer helped touch up the relative brightnesses of the ground elements. The camera was the Canon EOS Ra and lens the 35mm Canon L-series, on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker.
Jupiter and Saturn nearing their December 21, 2020 Great Conjunction, with this image taken December 14, 2020 from home in southern Alberta. This is a panorama stitch of two images, each a blend of 4 untracked images for the dark ground and stacked to smooth noise, plus a stack of 4 tracked images for the sky, all with the 85mm Rokinon lens at f/3.5 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400. The camera was on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, only roughly polar aligned as Polaris was not readily visible amid clouds to the north and in the bright sky. Diffraction spikes added in Astronomy Tools actions. Stitched in Photoshop with Photomerge. Taken well past traditional "blue hour" but when there was still a lot of colour in the sky to the camera, yet the sky was dark enough to show other stars.
