We’ve got a new column coming to the Quad with the start of the semester: Carl Crum’s astrophotography! Here is his first photo, and we look forward to seeing the many more that he will share with the community!
Carl’s description:
This is my take on the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which I shot with an ASI385MC planetary camera and Celestron C9.25 telescope. On December 21, 2020, the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn passed within a tenth of a degree from each other, which hadn’t happened since 1623 (back when Galileo was still alive). However, in 1623, the conjunction occurred during the day, which made it quite difficult to observe. The last time the planets passed this close during the night was in 1226, before telescopes and modern astronomy had been invented. If you look closely, you can see one of the four Galilean moons above Jupiter!