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I’ve finally reviewed all the 30-sec quick captures from Dec 20 and find most have too much turbulence even for PIPP. One is good, so here it is. This image is the result of 30 seconds SER 16-bit RAW video at a single fast 5 milliseconds per frame exposure, captured via SharpCap, processed in PIPP for 30 best frames of about 250, stacked in Autostakkert, sharpened with Registax 6 wavelets. As it was not fully dark, 16:46 local time, the background sky offers some blue hue to the background. I could process this out of the image, but I like the blue hue background, as it contrasts nicely with the yellowish hues of these planets at this low 18-deg elevation above the horizon. The turbulent atmosphere at this low elevation angle was tamed a bit with a Baader contrast booster filter, which accentuates the blue hues. The ZWO camera was at prime focus with Baader MPCC to my 14.5" f4.3 Zambuto mirror Starmaster Dob, skycommander goto and tracking. I used cell phone apps before the sun set to align my Starmaster to Polaris and Altair, using calculated elevation and azimuth for the specific position of these alignment stars at the time of the alignment process. This worked better than I thought. Once it was dark enough to view the planets, voila, there they were within a half degree of center, requiring only a minor adjustment to center the pair.

A good result there Ron. Demonstrates the difference elevation makes between your 18°and my 5°.

Dave

This is what I aspire to https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201223.html (thanks for this Brian). 1m scope (probably), on top of a mountain and high elevation works wonders.

Dave

Well done capturing that image Ron - it's one of the best I've seen of this event.
As Dave points out, Damian Peach has an unfair advantage of vast aperture and a mountain top telescope!

cheers,

Robin

Thanks. I realize the scope helps, but I could not have done this without SharpCap so Many Thanks

Damian has taught us much, so I’m grateful for seeing his work. Thanks for sharing. Indeed, in this case the mountain top is a great assist to see lower in elevation with less ground heat turbulence but still a lot of atmosphere. I didn’t read in detail but I suppose his image was captured at a location south of Dave’s 53-deg N and my 42-deg N locations, another large advantage.

So glad we were able to participate in such a rare event.

All the best,

Ron