I managed a couple of images of the Moon and Jupiter’s conjunction on December 24th and 25th. The clouds actually made it very beautiful to view but a challenge to photograph.
Moon and Jupiter lower left through the clouds.
Moon and Jupiter through the clouds with Aldebaran visible in lower right.
Below are charts of the sky from the 25th and they zoom in on Jupiter. Jupiter and the Moon at the time had an angular separation ¾ of a degree.
Sky Chart Dec. 25, 2012 looking east after sunset.
Jupiter, Moon and Aldebaran in Taurus
Jupiter and the Galilean Moons
Party on and Happy Holidays :o)
Update: 12/27/2012
Excellent images from around the world are now being posted and here is a great place to start. SpaceWeather.com – Set the archive date to 12/27/2012 after today. (located in the upper right of homepage)
CHRISTMAS COVER-UP: When the sun went down on Christmas, a pair of bright lights rose in the east; Jupiter and the Moon were having a holiday conjunction. In Brazil, the pair were so close, the Moon completely covered Jupiter. Marcelo Domingues of Brasilia snapped this picture seconds before the occultation: SpaceWeather.com
See Marcelo Domingues’ image here.
Here is another fine image from South America - Jupiter Occulted By The Moon On Christmas Evening
Taken by Gustavo Rojas on December 25, 2012 @ São Carlos, Brazil
This is a great example of Afocal Projection which is simply holding a camera and lens up to the eyepiece of a telescope to take the image. In this case the telescope was an 8 inch Dobsonian or sidewalk telescope, affectionately called a Light Bucket :o)
Be sure to click on these images to see the full size version.
