Right after sunset on the winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn were just 1/10 degree apart, clsoer than they have been since 1623. From my backyard in Connecticut, the skies were partly cloudy, with enough openings for me to take a lot of pictures, hoping that at least some would be good.

The image here is a composite based on short exposures of the very bright planets and longer exposures to capture their moons. I was able to capture the four bright moons of Jupiter and six of Saturn's moons, including dim Iapetus far to the left.

Roll over the image to see the names of the moons.

The middle image is based on 1/2-sec exposures, and it shows how overexposed the planets get if you try to capture everything here in one shot.

The bottom image is from a cell phone, showing the planets and the sky conditions that evening.

Image details:  Jupiter image is from a stack of 1/2000-sec frames, Saturn image is from a stack of 1/500-sec frames, and the moons from a stack of 1/2-sec exposures, all taken with a Canon T6i camera through a 14-inch Meade LX850 telescope at f/8.

December 21, 2020