Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction - 21 Dec 2020

Jupiter passes Saturn in the sky every 20 years. On the winter solstice of 2020 however, they were only 6 arcminutes apart, their closest pass since 1623. When I took this picture on that night, Ganymede was in transit and can be seen as a dark dot on Jupiter. I had to make Saturn 6 times brighter so that it can be seen without overexposing Jupiter, which is flanked by Io and Europa.

It is rare to have 2 bright planets in the eyepiece together, so I took a picture of the eyepiece view with my phone (inset). Taken 19 Dec 2020, the moon Titan can be seen just above oblong Saturn, and all 4 Galilean moons are in a line below Jupiter. (The extra dot below Saturn is a star.)

Mineral Moon - 21 Sep 2021

Although the moon appears uniformly gray, its colors appear when they are saturated. They reveal different compoositional differences in the surface material of the moon. The red indicates areas with higher iron content, and blue reveals titanium.

Moonrise Over Idyllwild - 20 Mar 2024

Moonrise Over Idyllwild - 20 Mar 2024

The Outer Planets

Saturn

Due to its large axial tilt and 30 year orbit, we see its rings edge-on every 15 years

The Many Faces of Mars

Mars is the only planet whose solid surface we can easily image. In these images from 2020, we can see the reddish sandy deserts that dominate its northen hemisphere contrasted with the darker highlands of the south. It was summer in the southern hemisphere, and the south polar cap was at a minimum. The larger carbon dioxide (dry ice) polar cap has sublimated and the much smaller permanent water ice cap remains. Meanwhile the north pole is covered by a polar hood of white clouds as carbon dioxide snows - the north polar cap is being expanded. In the leftmost image, white clouds can be seen near the terminator on the right.

Saturn Lunar Occultation - 27 June 2024

Lunar occultations of Saturn really are not that rare, but this one is interesting because it shows Saturn only months before its rings "vanish". Every 15 years, Earth passes through Saturn's equatorial plane, and for a few hours its thin rings cannot be seen, as will happen in March 2025. I took this picture in daylight from Idyllwild California. Saturn is dim and did not show up well, so I substituted a picture I took of Saturn the previous night.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot

The clouds of Jupiter are in constant change and motion. Occasionally, for reasons unknown, the entire Southern Equatorial Belt in which the Great Red Spot resides completely vanishes, as happened in 2010 (leftmost image).

Mars Through Filters

Seeing planets through different filters can reveal more about them. Mars presents the greatest contrast in Red, while Blue highlights water and ice - the brightest areas in Blue are the south polar cap, the north polar hood, and the clouds on the left limb and terminator on the right.

Mars Lunar Occultation - 7 Dec 2022

While it's not rare for the moon to occult planets, this lunar occultation of Mars was incredibly unique in that it occurred just 1 hour before Mars' opposition, which only happens every 780 days or so. This means that both Mars and the moon were "full". The inset shows a raw frame from the video when Mars was sliding behind the moon.

Moonrise Over Idyllwild

Jupiter - 27 Sep 2022

Jupiter is seen here with 3 of its largest moons - icy Europa on the left, then Ganymede the largest moon in the solar system, and to the far right is reddish Io, the most volcanic place in our solar system. Earth would fit inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a feature which has persisted since our earliest telescopic observations of Jupiter in the 1600's. It could be millenia old - we don't know.

Ganymede Occults Io - 9 Mar 2015

Every 3 years we pass through Jupiter's equatorial plane. During these times Jupiter's moon can occult each other. I shot this particular event from Palomar Mountain while still relatively new to astroimaging. This 3 hour animation shows Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, transiting in front of Jupiter as the Great Red Spot rolls out of view. As Ganymede leaves the disk, its shadow appears on the opposite side and Io appears from the right. Then the much larger Ganymede completely covers Io for a full minute.

Sinus Iridim - the Bay of Rainbows

The Full Moon - Summer Equinox 2024 - from Idyllwild

The Full Mineral Moon - Summer Equinox 2024 - from Idyllwild