This was the second occultation of the planet Jupiter within recent weeks, but the last one took place in broad daylight, much less spectacular to observe than this event which took place at nighttime. The one disadvantage was that “night” was at 4:25 in the morning for us here at Exeter, NH, USA. This made for a small audience…. myself, in a field, with a portable telescope, camera and a winter coat and hat. Portability in astrophotography is much easier than it used to be. This time around, a small refractor, a GoTo mount, a portable 12V power pack, and a DSLR were all that were needed.
Arriving at the scene, the view was already lovely: there, above the eastern horizon was Jupiter just beneath the Moon, about an hour away from the event itself. High in the sky to the south: Orion and Taurus. Rising with the Moon was Leo. The milky Way was sprawled across the sky. There were a couple of Great Horned Owls hooting in the nearby forest. Perfect!
Perfect it was: seeing conditions were not absolutely the best, but they were good enough to spot the bright Galilean moons of Jupiter, and an occasional view of the major cloud bands on the planet. The Moon as a waining crescent gave a nice view of the craters and mountains that we usually don’t get to see in such a relief without being up early in the morning before sunrise. Like clockwork, the event unfolded nicely giving some good opportunity for images. Below are three:
An overexposed image to show off two neat things: The Earthshine from the Moon’s unilluminated side, and the four bright moons of Jupiter, Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
Two images exposed to show Jupiter as it approached occultation. The Moon is also well exposed. If you look carefully, one can just see the cloud bands on Jupiter.
Once Jupiter was completely blocked by the Moon’s presence, being awake with stars in the sky was a real draw. I decided to spend some time gathering images of the favorite winter targets. In the case shown below, the much beloved Orion’s Nebula (Messier 42) was a good one. It was highest in the sky (culminating) and a bright enough target that a few minutes of exposure time would grab a good image.
