Transcript:
actually Steve if you want to bring Chewbacca back I I I think I'm used to him by now okay long as you make sure he
doesn't attack you oh we're we're on good terms with each other [Laughter]
great we have we have an understanding great glad to hear
it oh Chris did you see the uh Google uh doodle oh yeah woo that was that was
really something I mean um yeah that's cool yeah Jupiter and Saturn are given a
high five
yeah and what is your latitude Chris I'm 10 degrees north 10 Wow Let's see what
we're going to have for Jupiter tonight um are we going to have some great the Great Red Spot let's
see [Music]
on oh we're gonna have the Great Red Spot yay yeah we're going to have the Great
Red Spot
uh okay yep we're going to have the great red spot at the central Meridian yes
tonight now when I saw the moons all lined up it was just so
beautiful yeah it was I mean it just as you said
it's it was surreal yeah you know I I I almost cried last
night because um while processing uh the software went crazy trying to uh stack
two planets at the same
time picture actually reminds me of the first time I saw a great conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn it was September the 1st 1960 it's like uh over well over 60
almost 65 years ago oh wow and that was one of the first observing sessions I
ever had got to see Jupiter and then the next night got to see Saturn right next to it wasn't nearly as close it as they
are now but it was wonderful to
see yeah it's it's this this is really mesmerizing I never expected uh you know
I've seen Jupiter and Saturn thousands of times but you know the two of them
together it's really something not like this yeah that's right not like this
this okay the sun's going down now in you can see uh the sunset now oh it's
beautiful yeah yeah so um I'll I'll be putting up my telescope in about two
minutes yeah yeah it's now under the trees
yeah I never thought I I'd be doing this you know last week when that tropical
depression arrived I was like I was in depression it was uh my heart sank when
you um you sent me that message I just go ah you gotta be kidding
me really I you know I felt like crying yeah then uh yesterday I wasn't even
sure because it was raining uh hard uh yesterday morning then in the afternoon
everything just cleared up yeah somebody likes you out
there well yours is by far the best picture I've seen so far of the conjunction it's absolutely beautiful
yeah we're gonna have a family picture
after with the with a uh with jup and Saturn on the background
yes okay I've shared this um broadcast with a lot of uh groups what's your do
you have a favorite group on um on Facebook I already shared I already shared it okay
great so char Morrison is uh watching from Scotland he said he saw him getting
closer last night so if you got everybody that's watching this right now should share this because uh you never
know who uh might not be able to see it you you don't know who's clouded out
somewhere and this is going to be their chance to watch it uh you know being imaged by let me set up my telescope
sure thanks Chris yeah you're going to get a chance to
watch it being image by really a a worldclass planetary imager Christopher
go I I'll tell you um after this is over I would appreciate you telling us the
total worldwide audience that we had for this entire all five parts of this yeah yeah
sure absolutely this is a real special experience for all of us I think yeah
yeah
looking at that picture and watching Chris set up his telescope I get the impression tell me
if I'm wrong this guy knows what the hell he's doing he knows what the hell
he's doing yes I think so yes he does gosh
yeah and Steve you were the president of the Royal Astronomical Society when no I
was the president of my of my Center yeah
uh twice from 2018 to 2020 okay I I only stayed on for one one
term uhuh it's a big
responsibility it's a lot of work it's a lot of work MH
for
there it is um we're almost ready almost ready huh for for the sun to set and
uh and Saturn you can see the sun has Set uh
yes um the sun's going to set in uh yeah 24 minutes 24 minutes 10
minutes after that we will see the we'll see Jupiter so what we're going to do we're
going to talk a little bit about uh your setup and and uh what you hope to
capture and um sure and then we'll go to like an intermission and wait for it to uh get
dark for you so okay but we'll be burning the burning the
internet uh wires so to
speak I hope the cation is good though I'm sure it
is I'm sure it is
so we'll start in 14 seconds 13 okay
MH let me power this
thing get things ready
well hello everybody uh this is Scott Roberts here and uh I am here with um uh
David Levy and Steve Malia uh and Christopher go um if if uh you you have
never watched a global star party before David Levy has been on every one of them
uh he uh he gives um wonderful commentary he is often poetic uh he
sometimes sings He is um he loves the night sky and um he is uh loved by
amateur astronomers and professional astronomers around the world um David is
uh uh someone that loves to look for comets he's found a lot of them but he mostly his greatest enjoyment is looking
for them uh he is um also found
lots of asteroids and uh he is someone that constantly is exploring the night sky and uh he loves sharing the
experience of it and uh the feeling of it and so that we're really lucky to
have him on tonight Steve Malia um I've known Steve for gosh it's going on five
years six years something like that now about that yeah yep he is the owner of Ontario telescopes up in Ontario Canada
uh he is a former president president of the Royal Astronomical Society uh of
Canada his his local Center there in in uh Toronto Ontario right and then we
have um uh and and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is co-hosting this event tonight um or
today it's just very early it is today uh the 21st the winter solstice and the
summer solstice I was arguing whether or not we should call it winter or summer because uh it's just a Solstice so uh
but uh it's what a solstice it is because we have this incredible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and uh
uh to image it this morning uh will be uh Christopher go uh Christopher is in
the Philippines where exactly are you Christopher I'm in the island of Sabu
the island of Sabu yeah and it looks beautiful it looks beautiful you you were showing us the sunset a little bit
earlier and the Sun is going down um so we have um we have people starting to
tune in um uh from Sweden and uh we have
uh someone we have someone on earlier from Scotland um and um for those of you
that are watching right now uh you know please share and uh uh you know with
your favorite groups on on social media or with your friends um
uh as I mentioned earlier you never know who might be clouded out by this uh Chris was supposed to be clouded out uh
there was a tropical depression heading over there and Chris you told me that it's cloudy everywhere in the
Philippines except for where you are is that right yes uh in uh except in the visayas uh in in lison right now it's
basically totally Cloud cloudy over there right now and in also in the southern Philippines it's also cloudy
just uh the Eastern visayas is clear oh great it has to be clear in
Arizona because the state legislature just passed the law stating
that it has to be clear with a FW they're going to have
A200 fine for every minute of clouds we get on this conjunction day
yeah and uh Steve I think will report that the Canadian House of Commons tried
to pass the same law but they tied Justin Trudeau up and they said no you can't do it because of the rights of
clouds and so they didn't do it in the right the rights of clouds I I
can tell you I can tell you which side of uh the law I am on that one
yeah so Steve uh why don't we do it this way let's let's start off with having you uh talk a little bit about the Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada and then you can uh turn it over to David and
then um uh we'll uh we'll uh then turn it over to Chris but it's still going to
be R you think roughly half an hour Chris before you probably 20 minutes 20
minutes 20 30 minutes yeah yeah so we'll uh we'll we'll we'll do our thing that
uh uh and then if we have to we'll take a little intermission but we'll stay online with you um and then um and then
come back out of our intermission with Chris with live images of this conjunction so that's great so go ahead
Steve let me uh thank you very much Scott it it's quite an honor to uh to be here um uh am among uh some Titans and
in the industry um and uh to represent the RC today uh the uh RC Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada has its roots that go back to the uh mid- 1800s
um uh as a society of like-minded individuals who who enjoyed the um uh
science disciplines particularly with with astronomy uh it wasn't always called The Royal Astronomical Society um
in the early 1900s uh when the having Royal assent what was fashionable it was
uh um there was a petition made and and it was granted the the title Royal um
the RO astrological Society has several centers um clubs across Canada from one
end to the other all the way up to uh the great white North in the Yukon a very active Center up there um uh all
filled with enthusiastic uh astronomers of all ages and all levels uh the
society is very welcoming to anyone who would does want to join um and you don't even have to be in Canada we have
members across the globe around the globe rather um and it uh you know some
really good individuals and and notable individuals of of the society uh we have one with us uh today uh Mr David levia
of course is a member of the RC as well um I believe from the Miss Saga sorry
not I'm from Miss Saga from the Montreal um uh Center so the RC is a uh very active uh
Society with uh several activities that happened throughout the year um they are
also the owner of Sky News Magazine and they uh self-publish another magazine to
its members called Journal which is um a document uh with more scientific related
articles uh more technical type documents and they also put a very good document every year called the
observer's handbook which is uh read and enjoyed by people all around the globe
um if you wanted to find out when the next conjunction would be or when
there's going to be an O occultation it will be in the observer's handbook uh for for that year so it's a ve very good
document for anyone who's uh looking for that special event or that R rare event
that might not fully be publicized uh the RC um is uh uh going
to be with us later today uh we have members from across uh Canada who will be uh talking about various aspects of
Canadian astronomy and the offerings that it has has given to the world in terms of not only its stories of been
handed down from Generation generation of uh Canada's native people but also
the advancements in technology and the sharing of that technology to help uh
all of mankind to get uh to reach its goals within space um so we'll hear
about that here's some great poetry as well from some Canadian uh astronomers
and other uh aspects of the RC and what we do and I think we'll actually be
showing off our new robotic telescope which is located in Northern California and hopefully we get some pictures out
of it for tonight too it seems like everyone's clear so hopefully uh we get
that window there as well yeah that's great thank you Scott thank you so uh
David um uh it would be uh it would be an honor
to have you uh start off this great conjunction uh uh this uh what will in
total be a five part series of uh of uh broadcasts uh going until uh all through
this morning until the night so I think you're muted
David sorry about that everybody it was nice way to start a um this is a
wonderful way to start a long um Global star party for me to be
muted and uh which actually reminds me of a radio program I was on uh a few
weeks ago I had uh done a lot of these Global star parties and one of them I
had actually sung a poem Scotty made the mistake of telling me that it wasn't bad
so I tried it on this radio program when I was done the moderator of the program
said don't quit your day job oh so I
swore I swore it's not that funny guys I swore that I would never ever sing
anything again especially at the gsps not even hello darkness my old friend
I've come to talk with you again anyway boys and girls ladies and
gentlemen today's the day when the handbook came out of the RC an
organization I dearly love when the handbook came out I was
looking at Jupiter and Saturn and just how close they get together and when the
handbook said there would be a tenth of a degree apart I couldn't believe
it I hired a lawyer we sued the Royal Astronomical
Society and and we lost because the uh
Arizona State Legislature took the side of The
Observers Handbook of the RC and they said no they're right and so I had to pay them billion dollar oh that's
tough and I can add to that that the legislature has since passed a rule that
states that the sky must be clear tonight and uh so far the clouds are
going along with it but we'll see what happens and if any of you believe anything I've told you up to now I've
got some land I could sell you somewhere okay that's right this is the day we've
been waiting a long time for this and uh we're going to see a lot of
pictures and we're going to see hopefully Christopher's picture coming up and it's absolutely incredible to see
it but and here's the this is something that needs to be
seen this is not an event that really jumps out at you and grabs you if you
just look at the picture or a video you need to be out at a telescope and look
at it my wife Wendy and I are as excited about this as we've been about any total
eclipse of the sun we've seen this is something and the other thing about the
conjunction is that this conjunction is uh more of an
astrological event than an Astron astronomical one and I
know I know that care careful I know the board of directors is going to expel me
again from the society for saying that but uh I'm circling for a landing here
I'm going to make a point the last time that Jupiter and Saturn were this close was in the year
1623 that was seven years after William Shakespeare died and the same year that
the first folio of Shakespeare's place was published 1623 how many people saw that in 1623
obviously Shakespeare had died so he obviously couldn't see it the answer is zero nobody not a single person saw it
Scotty tried to do a global Star Party minus minus 100 and uh couldn't get it connected
right but uh the reason the the real reason that nobody saw it all that time ago was that um there were no
telescopes and the other real reason is that it took place in broad daylight this one tonight right now
today that Christopher is going to show us in just a few minutes is visible in the evening it's
gorgeous and uh almost nobody's going to get to see it except all of us that's right I'm going to and it's
been a tradition that I usually do some quotes when I'm doing these uh introductions quotes designed to get
people excited about what's happening the event is really exciting all by
itself if it's clear I really prescribe going outside with a pair of binoculars
small telesc and look at Jupiter and Saturn it's absolutely incredible it's absolutely
mindboggling to be able to see something that it is a miracle and it reminds me of what
Shakespeare wrote in in uh Julius Caesar he said when he had caleria tried
to tell her husband Julia Caesar not to go to the Senate house
that day because she had had a terrible dream about him being
assassinated and uh Julius Caesar said no I'm going to go he went and he was
assassinated by Brutus and his gang calpernius said to warn him off
when Beggars die there are no comets seen the heavens themselves Blaze forth
the death of princes and all the astrology minded people in his audience
would have appreciated that Shakespeare did not follow astrology he didn't
believe in it and for the evidence that he didn't believe in
it I have um actually for the evidence that he
didn't believe it there is Sonet 14 and uh it's very interesting sonnet
that says not from the stars do I my judgment pluck and yet me thinks I have
astronomy Shakespeare had no real interest in that but he put it in a lot
of his plays as much as he could because he knew his audience loved it and uh he
was a playwright and he wanted to increase the take at the
theater things that we see tonight that we understand that we think we
understand planetary conjunctions really do not teach us much about science but they teach us an awful
lot about history now I I think I would agree with the RC before they throw me out
completely that modern astrology doesn't have much value in science has no value in
science we're talking now when we look at this conjunction about ancient
astrology about thousands and thousands of years ago when for the purposes of predictive
either judicial or natural astrology people
actually made predictions as to where the planets would be and the
conjunctions and uh when these conjunctions came together was a magnificent thing to
do there was a comment that came by every 76 years that thrill the
astrologers of ancient times and the astronomers of today as lesle eler on a comet discover
who found 12 comets during his career wrote one of the most moving
parts of his book he said when within historic times 28 visits by Hal's Comet
have been recorded on an early trip it witnessed the defeat of atillas Huns in ad.
451 it arrived in time to preside over the Norman Conquest in
1066 in the year 145 6 the menacing appearance of Hal's Comet so alarmed the
Pope that he decreed several days of prayer and established the midday Angelus and with a great clanging of
bells he then besought the comet to visit its wrath solely on the invading Turks but in 1607 as was watched by both
Shakespeare and Kepler and I like to think that it was also seen by Captain John Smith and Pocahontas in the
frontier Skies of Jamestown but on his following trip around in 1682 the com was observed by
Edmund Hy himself who probed into its periodic past and bequeathed to it an
honored name that it can bear with pride throughout the solar system by 1835 when it returned fairs
down here on Earth has speed it up many a canal bolt traveler looking down could see the comet glowing on the surface of
his Highway Humanity himself had taken to the skies when the Comet appeared in 1910 for he was making pledging flights
of 100 miles or so in 1986 our historic visitor was visited in turn for in that
year a spacecraft from Earth held a rendevu with H's Comet out in space this is my favorite part of this who would
venture to forell the Wonders and achievements will the comet that the comet will witness in that distant year
of 2062 or will Humanity himself itself Pro periodic will the Huns be back
again I don't no for those of us who have lived in the United States or all around the world this year with this
horrible pandemic we've been through it really has been a terrible
year except for two little things this summer Comet neowise brightened the sky
and was was absolutely gorgeous and today we have the closest conjunction
since 1623 of two planets I invite you all to go outside look up at the night sky
enjoy Jupiter and Saturn together in one field of a telescope or
binoculars and be able to live the rest of your life saying I saw the great
conjunction of 1623 I remember I'm sorry I saw the
great conjunction of the Year 2020 I remember looking at Christopher's
picture earlier on tonight that he took a couple of days ago last night it brought me back to when I
first started an astronomy the first time I looked through a telescope was at Jupiter during the Great conjunction of
1960 Jupiter and Saturn weren't anywhere near as close as they are tonight but
they were there and Galileo himself would have felt no greater thrilled than
I did that night when I was able to see Jupiter and its four
moons enjoy this conjunction it's wonderful
it's thrilling and at the same time I take this opportunity to wish every one of
our listeners a very happy holiday season much happier
2021 and keep on looking up at the night sky back to you Scotty very nice very
nice we have a uh we have a listener here it was excellent beautiful David
thank you thanks we have a listener here his name is Greg m call and he says that
uh he says Shakespeare keeps getting mentioned my great-grandfather 12
Generations back was his brother so yeah so we have some connection there
so um wait a minute I don't think Shakespeare had any brothers I don't know I have no
idea I don't think you did but uh maybe maybe I'm wrong I'm usually I'm wrong
but uh we'll see but in any event we do know that William did not
see uh the conjunction of uh 1623 but almost certainly his dad took
him outside in November of 1572 to show him the Supernova in
copia I can't believe that John Shakespeare would not have brought his son out to show him that wonderful
Supernova they didn't know it was that but but it was and now before I get
thrown out of here back to you Scotty well we're gonna turn this over
to Chris uh Chris I we were talking earlier and I know that you were super
excited about uh having clear skies and uh getting to see this uh spectacle uh
that we've all been waiting for you know it is so amazing to me me I mean at the
the first part of this month I mean Jupiter and Saturn were still pretty far apart you know and I thought is it
really true that they're going to be that close in just 21 days you know I
just had a tough time believing it you know and and so I was out this afternoon
this evening or yesterday evening excuse me I'm still I'm running off of about one hour of sleep here um and it was
beautiful it was beautiful I was looking through a 10 mm plal eyepiece which doesn't have a super wide field of view
but there they were both in the eyepiece uh two Jewels uh uh in there
and it was just amazing it was just amazing and then uh Chris sent me a an
image that he did yesterday again beautiful image and uh I know he had to
work hard on it to uh to get it processed correctly but it's beautiful it's stunning and that that's what you
saw if you were watching the very first part of this program uh the inset photo
was the shot that Christopher did I'm going to turn this over to you Chris so um it's finally here it's uh we're on
December 21 the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn you know I know about this since last year during NE uh of uh
2019 uh while play um you know a friend of mine from Thailand just informed me
that uh yeah this this conjunction is going to be very close and uh when I played with the planetarium software I
was I was surprised that it would be about how many six arc minutes from each
other I mean like and uh I have to say that um you know this this image uh it's
best viewed to a telescope I know that there's a lot of images out there nothing compares to looking at an
eyepiece and seeing the rings of Saturn with Jupiter and its bands and its moons
tagging along it was an incredible site last night I had opportunity to see it
in fact um I haven't seen any planet for over a week because you know the weather here has been horrible to cap it off two
days ago we had a tropical depression here so um I was so depressed and uh you know it's just
incredible now that we have clear skies um there are a few clouds on the horizon but overall we have clear skies here in
CBU so um we should see something incredible tonight again um for those of
you who have the opportunity um you know get up pair of binoculars or even a small telescope get out there observe uh
both planets it's it's an incredible site I would say that it's almost like watching a total solar eclipse yeah only
much rarer yeah much rarer that's right yeah yeah you go a year and a half or so
somewhere in SE total eclipse yeah have we have we've been waiting 800 years for this so this is a big deal 800 years but
uh for for those who are young there's still another chance on March 15
20180 uh you can actually see uh this this thing but early in the morning at
around probably 4 uh 5 4:30 in the morning uh you'll be able to see something similar for for those of you
who are still teenagers now uh you will be able to see in March 15 2080 but for
most of us here I don't think we'll live that long
I'm having myself Frozen so I can I can thought out to see it once again so in
fact um I think there's there's a in the 22nd century there's an occultation of
uh Jupiter by Mars oh w i mean we won't live through that but
that that thing's going to be incredible yes yeah that's awesome that's awesome
so uh uh you're not at your home you you mentioned that you went to a Mountaintop
to a friend's house or when yes yes uh I'm I'm in a friend's house it's like uh
it's the the home of the classmate of my daughter uh we're good family friends
and I'm here at their house um I'd like to say thank you to Jasmine oi and uh uh
for uh hosting us here uh uh we have an incredible place here to to observe a
clear Western Horizon and and uh we're excited uh still clear now we can see
the moon up now and uh I think Jupiter in a few minutes so I'll be going out I think Sunset happened about five minutes
ago so in a few minutes B can can you check if we can see Jupiter my wife has
the sharp eyes she can see Jupiter uh not yet but soon we will see Jupiter
soon so um we're I'm very excited now uh to see how close both planets will be
okay so um I guess we could take uh an intermission for a little while how much
time do you think that we should wait 10 minutes 10 minutes just 10 minutes uh
anyway I'll I'll be once I see juper I'll be pointing it and sticking my camera there uh well um for those of you
who are Imaging um I know uh I posted a few weeks ago that this might require a
multiple exposure no don't need a multiple exposure um from my experience
last night all you need to do is to uh saturate Jupiter at around 95
histogram 95% histogram and uh you should be able to capture decent Saturn
and the moons of uh Jupiter you can see it now okay we can see Jupiter now yay
wait a sec let me align it um okay uh okay
you can see it
[Music]
okay I have my wife pointing the telescope for me okay
great done it's it's still hard uh it's still up
uh can you see it yeah I
okay okay careful the
cables it's it's kind of hard to see during Twilight though
yeah I I have a couple of friends with me right now one of the guy people here is this
is a one Global star party so about
no this is uh is in Arkansas this US and Canada okay there okay okay
yeah so they can see it now they can see Jupiter with the naked
eye now
[Music]
yeah we can see Jupiter now cool
hey Scott yeah I'd like to add to David's list of things that we we did
get good things we got in 2020 what was that we got Luke Skywalker
back yes we did yes we [Laughter] did you had chewbaca with you a little
while ago yeah yeah we had a we had a job we had to take care of last minute delivery
before Christmas I noticed he wasn't wearing
her mask though we got tested ahead of time you got tested of
time [Laughter]
where lots of excitement yeah they've already spotted naked
eye so if you're just now turning tuning in uh you're watching uh the 27th Global
star party uh with David Levy and Steve Malia uh co-hosted by the Royal
Astronomical Society it's already on the field of view of the teles okay now and we have Christopher
go with us in Sabu uh the Philippines and uh he has dodged the bullet because
there was a tropical depression uh storm that um uh was
heading towards the Philippines it's now heading towards Vietnam uh but uh Sabu this island uh
off the Philippines is the only clear area of all of the Philippines right now
so we got really super lucky and uh uh if you don't know who Christopher go is
he's he's one of the great planetary uh imagers in the world and um
uh so we're really lucky and I know he's super excited
so let me let me set things up
uh uh can I share my screen yeah go ahead
what there it is okay now to move
the so yeah just needs to be focused you can see the autof focus
image of Jupiter
now what's going on
looks like colation is good okay
go now there's Jupiter now
um oh there there it is there it is guys yeah okay oh fantastic you still
have a u looks like a d there we go there we
go look how close they
are you can see the moons now yes let me uh Focus this thing um
oh you can see that it's boiling unfortunately uh it's quite low in the sky right
now uh is that the Great Red Spot that we're seeing right
there all the focus
I need to focus this thing guys
[Music] um the colation is good
it's a little out of cation but [Music]
uh could be okay
here we go
if we can get all the moons now
yeah Donald White is asking um if uh you're able to also capture Saturn's
moons uh yeah Saturn's Moon's going to be a little difficult because um if I
want to get details of Jupiter uh let me yeah you'd have to probably
blow Jupiter out I would
think I I image um let's see I have to
get histogram to 90% okay I'm using monochrome oh
okay you can see the Great Red Spot see over here yes yeah I thought
[Music] so Jupiter's quite a bit brighter than
Saturn oh yeah it is 10 times 10 times brighter wow and we'll go to the blue
filter which scope are you using uh tonight Chris uh it's a CES C8 a C8
okay you can see Saturn on the let's see if I can reduce the size of this uh
thing you can see the names the Great Red Spot is very prominent here exactly where is it if
you can can point it out let me place this in there we have some people that
saying they don't see
it I think I might be able to get Titan tonight
there we go see this dark thing over here that's a great spot yeah
yeah it'll be much clearer uh after
processing and what is your exposures like it's about uh this is a 40 46
millisecond 46 milliseconds
okay let me frame it
well I can see the moon let's see how many moov we can get one two three four
okay we got
four
90% it's going to be much better than yesterday
r
let me lower the speed of my drive too
fast should be
okay guys can can you please everybody sit down I'm going to do some capture okay let's do some
capture it's incredible to see the rings of Saturn now yes and uh just the two of
them at the same time the Great Red Spot doesn't really show up at the red filter
it will show up on the green and the blue filter
right yeah if you're watching this live with us right now uh you can see some
features on Jupiter uh you can see uh equatorial banding uh and you can see the Great Red
Spot uh no you can see yeah there you go
there it is yes you can see it here the great R
Spot a sec I hope to that
I just have to make sure uh uh both planets are in the field of view because
um uh my my mount isn't really perfectly polar
aligned but it's incredible there they are very close now
yeah it's beautiful and uh so far it's quite it's
quite stable if you look at it it's uh wow not not that not that
bad it's beautiful the Rings are flashing back to when I was visually looking at it it was
just so amazing you know it's like one of those
moments where you just go this can't be real you know
so um we're going to take some uh RGB I think I'm going to take three sets of RGB and I was asked by uh some people to
take a methane band image uh of uh of both planets which is going
to be very incredible you can see the high altitude clouds and the
ice of the of these uh
objects and uh to think right now um Jupiter is less than 30° so uh it's quite low in the sky
right now
yes we have clear skies here oh
beautiful it's nice look how steady it is you can actually see a little um
boiling some which is yeah
some we had good Skies here in Arkansas too that's good yeah
so um you don't really need to do separate exposures I know a lot of people were complaining that if you're
doing a separate exposure than you're doing a composite but in this case um I
you know I just found out that it's it's totally unnecessary to do separate
exposures uh you can see that uh clearly you can see Saturn here although it's
quite dim but uh since you're not really going to very high resolution right now it's
doesn't really
matter it's just incredible now so 2020 isn't really that
bad it's
awesome so at least I can say I have data for [Music]
tomorrow once this is done I I can say that um yeah I was able to do
it it's incredible man
yeah plus we have the Great Red Spot plus you got the Great Red Spot
yes you'll notice that the the Sou actually um right is North here and
uh y the the southern equatorial belt is
uh actually um bright uh this year the southern equatorial but experienced some uh
fading so uh it it it has less color than uh
usual yeah
almost but still really um nothing can compare to the visual
view Chris these are absolutely gorgeous images and uh really really I'm enjoying
looking at them but I agree with you there's nothing to compare with the visual view I do want to take this
opportunity to correct something I made a big mistake earlier uh turns out that William Shakespeare
did indeed have three younger brothers so Maya kulpa I am sorry and I
apologize for the mistake I will refund all of your money
immediately I have a couple of people here um waiting for me to finish Imaging then we're GNA do the IP CU which is
going to be yeah this going to be
incredible but really looking at this right now uh it's it's it's it's surreal
to have both planets here at the same time so this width is six arc minutes
right six well actually the closest will be three hours from now so but we're
about probably six plus AR arc minutes right now okay that's 0.1 degre
0.1.1 degrees that's about a fifth the diameter of the Moon now
right now I have to do something right now while while Imaging so how far I can actually see
Saturn separate from Jupiter yeah it's uh
visually so um it's not it's not really a
both planets will merge into one no uh there's actually a separation a clear
separation between the two planets right now yes yeah even at its closest I I
really thought that uh Saturn would disappear but uh right now no it it it's
not it's uh it's there's uh yeah it's it's actually
separated there was some there was some early reports uh when they were talking
about this opposition that uh they would appear as like one star conjunction
conjunction no yeah conjunction not opposition opposition I'm sorry that's right conjunction sorry yeah so um will
will uh sleepy I'm sleepy that that myth was wrong uh yeah it's not one star I
even said that uh probably a couple of times that uh you will see one star
that's not the case uh 0.1 degree is quite far enough yeah yes yeah distinct
it's actually you can see a distinct separation between the two
yes let's see let's take a let's see if I can take a
picture M our group is calling it The Christmas
double star double Planet double Planet double
Planet okay I'll I'll uh okay let's go to the methane band
let's see what happens
o interesting interesting
interesting now um that really makes the rings of Saturn
pop yep uh you know um ice uh eyes are
bright and also in Jupiter you can see the Great Red Spot bright in methane band which is so what it supposed to
be um Scott I'm going to send you the the
image of the okay yeah so you can post it later on this is uh from my from my
um did you did you get it from Skype uh
yep you can zoom in and it's really too
distinct you can see Saturn on the right oh yeah
so guys this I got I have your telescope I can
see here let me download this image so what we're doing now we're
taking an image of Saturn and Jupiter using a meane band filter this is about 890 nanometers this is a narrow band
filter um b b can I get a favor can I cover can you cover the telescope I need
I need to take dark frame cover there's a cover no left cover can you cover the
telescope you don't have to uh I just place it over over the telescope
the the front sorry I need to take some dark
frames okay you can remove
it okay guys so uh yeah okay one one last
image so I'm happy yeah I'm happy too
oh yeah so are there any questions zoom in
you can you can definitely see both planets on your photo
yeah are there any questions from the see let's
see some comments you know the methane band looks so cool
um uh somebody's asking could you blow up Jupiter and Saturn to see the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn yeah in
a while in a while after I I take this it's not really blow up but uh increase
the gain so we can make make it brighter uh somebody wants to know what
you're using for autog guiding are you autog guiding no I'm not Auto guiding I'm manually guiding manually guiding
okay um Marco paa says he got a nice shot
with the Great Red Spot about nine hours ago is seeing in Southern California was decent
uh Alejandra shabz says I would like to see a processed image I'm skeptical because
I've never seen a red spot in my telescope only only on NASA
images oh you're you can go to my website I have a lot of he's got like detail inside the Great
Red Spot in his images yeah uh I also process images for NASA
so yeah yes on on the side I'm sure they're very grateful for
that uh Donald White says the moons appear faint it's always tricky as you need to get in best to get in best of
both planets yeah uh well uh but after processing the the moons will pop out so
yes it's not it's it's not a problem
uh Donald also says yesterday you had to use a 7 focal reducer to get them both in the same frame today he's going to
test without the reducer using an EVO 8
HD uh you have to understand that I'm using a huge camera right now it's a 1
inch uh 20 megapixel cam I actually got this specifically for this event so uh
from it's a qhy 183 monochrome camera the reason why I'm using a monochrome
camera is because um you know Jupiter right now is very low uh if we had a
color cam right now um what's going to happen is that uh the planets are going
to look very ugly uh this is because um uh the three colors uh red green and
blue will not focus on the same plane so um if you notice if you look at planets
low in the sky you'll see fringes uh especially anything below 7 ° you're
going to see fringes so one side's going to be red the other side's going to be blue this is atmospheric dispersion and
this is what happens when you're using a color cam there is a way to go around it which is an atmospheric dispersion
corrector but it's difficult to use you know when when the planet is very low so
right now I'm just going mono and uh so far because um uh it's been good from
from my images last night everything looked well so um
yeah I'm happy with it all right I'm just getting a couple
of image just to make sure that in case one of those images were bad Chris what yeah what is your
website uh it's uh W as. Christ stone.net or you can just Google me
Christopher go Astro Christopher go Astro here let me find it for them
and by the way speaking of Google uh you got to see their Google doodle oh yeah oh it's so cute got Jupiter and Saturn
doing a high five as they're they're uh reaching conjunction and Saturn's
holding its rings above its head like a hat it's cool
you know it's just surreal that um I'm Imaging right now I still can't believe
it in fact I still can't believe we're doing this right now yeah me too me too
two days ago I was like oh is this gonna happen supposed to happen but here we are yeah look you can
see the Great Red Spot very distinct now over there yeah
somebody said that it didn't look red to them this is because he's shooting in monochrome so it's only going to
appear in uh gray
tones uh Paul uh dios diosito says that
I hope Chris has some process alternative for the for the OCS
planetary I don't quite get this
question I won't be processing this till I get home so this is not going to be fast right I need a bigger computer to
to process this oh yeah but you can really see the great red spot right now that's easy yeah it's easy Let's uh
let's let's Zoom it uh
okay let me this is 100% so you guys could see it
um oh yeah much better now it's it's still
it's boiling because but here yeah but there's the red
spot so it's it's uh we'll see how it goes at post
processing oh no uh here you can see the Great Red Spot here it's
it's dark in blue filter because uh yeah it's yeah but in red it's it's you
cannot really see anything uh let's see the moons now
um let's see if we can also see Titan so we'll crank up the game
can see Titan where's Titan Titan's difficult to see oh yeah look at that
though the mo yeah looks a lot different than what I was observing this evening
or yesterday evening it's still this evening for me oh there's Titan oh wow look at that
okay let's uh oh yeah you can see one of the moons of uh Saturn yeah let's uh let's increase this
uh okay let me take an image so um I can have Titan there sure but you can see
how de Titan is compared to the other moons yes
this is
cool uh jeram says watching you guys from Korea just watch the con the
conjunction by I 40 minutes ago yeah it's even with the eye it's
incredible to see both of the planets so close yeah yeah you have to see this
visually by eye it's it's really a treat okay let's uh let's get an image
with uh
python incredible not a cloud not a [Laughter]
cloud you have good karma good astronomer
Karma why are you up so early me no
Stephen oh oh why not miss an event like this
yeah yeah Steve kept telling me it's just like when we were in college Scott
yeah [Laughter] Scott's a more hardcore than I am he
hasn't gone to sleep yet yeah I I did lay down and shut my eyes
for a few minutes I was trying to help you out
Scott well um if you think about it the next time you're going to do this will be
about 60 years from now so oh yeah I'll be 121 years old you just have yourself
Frozen Scott okay I'm going to me and Walt Disney I'll be right next
one I uh I have a friend who who who who's actually a rock star um and uh uh
in the 90s he was uh he had a he was in a very famous band in Canada he went off had a great solo career um and uh I
messaged him one morning and he got back to me shortly after that and I and I
said uh um I'm surprised you're up so early being the rock star that you are
and he said what makes you think I even went to bed yet yeah okay fair enough fair enough that's
right and when I uh the funny thing is when I look on
Facebook he's actually awake right now is he
yeah you got to share this with them this is a great
view uh by the way everybody watching this you should be sharing this with your friends and your groups that you
like um uh there are people that are clouded out around the world and uh this
will be their only chance to see this and this is a live view so uh please
share and like And subscribe whatever you got to do to uh to get this to your
to your friends and people that U you care about and also the people you don't
even know uh you know you'll I mean the people that will be inspired by seeing
this uh you know it will uh it has an effect on them and um you know I
personally believe that uh uh exploring uh the night skies and and exploring the
stars is is is beneficial for your for your psyche and your mind and your
health believe it or not yes this is one of the few really good
things we've had this year is this wonderful conjunction to see
yeah Justin Nath is saying uh uh Happy Solstice from Texas this is incredible
so how many people are there watching now Scott uh at any given time about 45 to
50 uh people stream through on on live streams like this um I will once the
stream ends then I can see actually how many people watched you know uh and
that's just on Facebook we are simal casting on um four actually five
different channels we're on we're on Mount Wilson observatories uh Facebook page as well uh we are uh on Twitch and
Twitter and YouTube um at the same time and we're also on the homepage of Cloudy
nights.com uh thank you very much Mike uh Mike beer who made who arranged that
and we're also uh broadcasting on the explore scientific uh uh live page
okay but the staffs that I usually report are just the Facebook ones you almost feel you can just reach out and
and grab on to Jupiter and Saturn there and just sort of visit it like Voyager
did you know yeah I like Jupiter and Saturn like this all the time yeah it's
so wonderful yeah it's like a dream Sleepless knives though it's like a dream that's
right Paul this diamido says I'm in the Bay area of California enjoying the
show uh this guy Frank Rodriguez he's watching from the Canary Islands oh wow
that's far
yeah is anybody watching from Montreal I don't know uh you know I'm
I'm sure that there's some people from Canada uh uh this person uh goes by the
name of static is watching from Denmark um we have a person watching
from Korea um not everybody's identifying where
they're watching from but it's fun to see that uh when they chime
in that's uh somebody wants to know what does this conjunction mean for you what
do you I mean aide for the beauty of this I mean what is it
uh well for me it's a chancef for to show people the night sky so I have
about probably a dozen people here who will be observing in the IP so yes it's an
opportunity to get you know especially young people into astronomy [Music]
MH because you you know here in the Philippines um uh everybody who had
fellow in stock everything's gone nobody has telescope in stock here right now so
um yeah it's it's uh it's it's it's tightening up a lot of interest in
astronomy MH for me it is giving the chance not to
celebrate um so much the astronomy of today but the astrology of ancient times
where people took very careful records of the orbits and positions of the
planets not for the same reason we do today but um for astrological purposes
we don't use that today there are no modern astrologers that astronomers have
any respect for really um there may be one or two but um
we the the ancient astrologers the contribution that they made allows us to see how rare tonight's
event really is is it's more rare than we can imagine yes and for me that's
what is so important and so wonderful about tonight it's incredible that they were
able to example um you know predict orbits or you know eclipses even without
computers or even you know uh with their basic math during that time yes they
don't have the complex math we have right now like uh algebra or even
calculus uh you know basically practically basic arithmetic the Emperors of China had to
correctly predict eclipses because they were the sons of
heaven so if they couldn't do that then they really might not be you know the
the real deal um but you know guys to me uh when
I see events like this I and I'm able to share it with others like we are right now it it shows the
you know that we are uh indeed um hurling through space we have you know
you're seeing this dance of the planets you know um uh as they get uh you know if you watched if you watched Jupiter
and Saturn just just this month starting in December 1st they were quite far
apart still in the sky and uh and now they're they're almost kissing I mean
it's just amazing you know and it's a reminder that uh that
we're hurdling through space we have in a way yes but Steve
what is what what in what is the most important thing that you see out of tonight tell us
please oh wow um well uh the the actual event itself the the Rarity of it um to
to me is very important uh because I I don't think i' be I'll be able to uh see
this again U my my my kids will uh hopefully um there won't be clouds at night um but but you know I I'm
scrolling through uh I've been scrolling through Facebook past few days um even as we're talking tonight I'm going
through my social media channels and there are uh several images already
being posted right um from tonight and also for the past couple of days and
it's again it's one of those events that bring people together a and get people
into interested in astronomy and also make them aware that this is taking place um and that's just done through
the Outreach efforts of of individuals that want to share such a great event and to me that is very important just as
a society as a whole globally the fact that uh an event like this that's Tak
place as far away as it is from where we are now um that I can try to bring some
uh a few people together and I think that's a very positive thing um that needs to be uh recognized and celebrated
um that uh no matter where you are what you believe in um
uh what your yeah what your beliefs are uh what you call a a a a star or a
planet in in your language um or beliefs it's all the same and it's there for
everyone to enjoy and um uh no M no matter where you are the stars are there
they're they're always they're that one constant um that uh that that helps bring us
together so that that's what I'm getting out of it tonight and and um a lot less
sleep thank that's very wonderful thanks Ste so we have um that's awesome
though um we have people watching uh let's
see once I asked where people were they a lot of people chimed in
um Denmark
um uh bay California uh per Parks Parks
Australia the UK yeah India um the
Netherlands uh Rancho camanga California just below Ms
there I think the one in rancha konga is a Padma from uh space uh setti Institute
uh says the one in Parks is John sarisan H hi John
from Parks observatory in uh Parks New South Wales in the
dish that's awesome uh North Carolina uh Ralph uh
Ralph Smith from Australia says it's raining there uh glad we're able to bring you some in oh yeah unfortunately
yeah I I saw the big cloud through um Sydney uh it's it's it's uh yeah not not
good there but uh yeah it's clear here that's right anyway guys um I may have
to uh switch off switch this off because um I have to show a couple of people
here okay um the visual view I I also need my
visual view my Vis will fix on this so
um hey uh thanks thanks for being here um you know um here's a last
look of uh both planets I hope you clear skies uh in your end
uh but uh I have some people here waiting to see the incredible view of
both planets oh yeah they have to see it that's true um yeah we got Philippines
Connecticut uh Hawaii uh Cleveland they're watching from all over the world so it's really
cool uh and people are saying thank you um uh and thank you very much Chris I
was so excited to get your uh Skype message today uh uh to let me know is
going to be clear for you and um when when did you say that uh the planets
will be at their uh their closest I think three four hours from now so it'll
be probably in Europe and Middle East so okay uh that'll be the the best time but
you know it's probably just a few Arc second closer so it's it's not really
you know a huge difference right yeah okay guys so um thanks thanks
for being here and I'm happy to be here with you guys thank you thanks for sharing and uh going through all this
effort night Chris thanks for joining okay okay David Hey Stephen David see see you Christopher good to see you
again hope to see you soon okay bye bye bye bye bye bye hey hey Scott the the 20
the 21st is um uh a day where there's several there's been a few other things that that happened or have happened okay
five years ago today was the first was the first successful Landing for SpaceX
of their oh wow okay booster five years ago um and again it's another one of
those events that that seared into my brain sure um and I remember how excited
I was uh watching it it was at night I think it was 11 o'
local time for me when I when I saw that and I remember jumping up and down when I when I saw it was just like impossible
that that that could happen you know it it it was a thing of Science Fiction right yes it was the type of thing that
I would I remember watching as a kid in in uh Thunderbirds Thunderbirds go right
and and uh um uh I I think it it's uh
you know it's events like this right that take place to help inspire right
stuff that will happen in the future that's true right is very true so there's there's someone who's watching
or will be watching today right who's who will will remember this this awesome
event and and be led down that path
right in in engineering or or the Sciences um and or or or as a Visionary
and have an idea a and and they'll they'll say what got you into and they
say I I remember looking through a telescope and I saw Jupiter and Saturn together yeah or or I was on a virtual
star party and I saw Jupiter and Saturn together and and um uh you know they'll
be doing an Eva tining a bolt on some satellite or something you know flashing
back to thinking about this yeah landing on landing on mars or he'll be on a he
or she sorry will be on a team um sending um robotic spacecraft to to
Jupiter Saturn right um or to explore Titan right and it's all going to be
because of uh this broadcast or or this event so David you ask me like what this means to me this this is what this means
to me and I don't mean to be sentimental about it but this it this is what kicks off that type of how could you not be
though I mean you know so right so uh and this is to me this is what what
really helps kick off those fantastic events that we witness
right A A A as the beings on this earth right like wow that's amazing where did you ever
get that idea well I read this book or I saw this this picture or I listened to
this lecture and it just got my mind going right so I look forward to to seeing that interview of somebody saying
this is what I saw on December 21st two 2020 right and and it kicked it off um
yeah thanks Steve I I can add a Dandy to your list of uh important things on
December 21st on December the 21st 1968 Apollo 8 was launched to the moon
and a few days later on Christmas Eve uh the three astronauts quoted from The
Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon can you imagine that I think everyone on
the planet had a TV was watching was watching that night and that was on December 21st this day
1968 yeah I I I it's it's amazing to think of where
where we've come from 1968 to now right yeah and te and the technology that that
we've developed um you know something that I'll talk about later today uh is
there's an event that happens in Ireland at new a place called newrange and it is a
um Observatory of sorts it's a ancient bar of ground um it it is a place from
3200 BC so it predates the pyramids predat Stonehenge um and there's a at
the entrance way and I I I'll show this in a picture later right there's a box above the doorway right it's not that
big of a box but it's there it's called the light box and on the 21st of
December right the it's the only day that it happens the sun is perfectly lined up with this box and the light
comes right through and illuminates the entire hallway um and that was a signal
that it's a solstice and it uh you mentioned earlier about uh um these
types of events being recorded right for specific purposes uh people would know when to plant uh their crop and went to
harvest their crop based on the movement of the of the planets and the moons surv
survival right it was their calendar this is another example of that and uh
how important um astronomy has been to mankind right s right um for all these
years so it it it it plus when some of these rocks are massive massive rocks so
the think 5,000 years ago right that they were removed without the type of
Technology we have now is just something that's pretty amazing but you know they have a whole other discussion and
there's TV shows dedicated to that kind of stuff too um and uh I won't say the year right on
this but it's also my mother's birthday again happy birthday Mom yay happy birthday
Mom okay so um this has just been our first segment of five segments of the uh
the great conjunction um and and the 27th Global Star Party um we will uh
take a break um maybe get a short nap and uh we're going to be back on um uh
coming up at 7 o'clock on the um in Central Time let me get you the
universal time uh that would be at 1300 uh universal time Universal Coordinated
Time Will be300 um and we will have um uh we will
have deep te Gam from Nepal and uh we have uh uh Libby and the stars from
Arkansas from Springdale Arkansas and of course uh Steve Mia and David Levy will both be with us as well so that'll be
our second segment and uh and then that that will be followed up by a 10:00
segment 10:00 a.m. uh Central Time which will be 1600 uh Central uh we have uh
astronomers from Europe to Africa uh with uh with Mike Simmons U uh helping
out for that uh that segment and then we come back at 150 PM Central at 1950 uh
Universal Coordinated Time um and uh we will have uh Western North America and
South America uh uh joining us and uh and then on the um at the at 4:45 p.m.
central which is 2245 Universal Coordinated Time um we
will have the final segment which goes into the evening uh and uh I'm not sure what time
it will end um uh but we have uh quite a few astronomers uh joining in at that
time with lots of live Imaging uh that will be going on uh not only in North
America but down in South America as well um you know don't forget it's
summertime uh down there in South America and they the sun set's quite late down there uh
after 8:00 pm I think is uh when it's like 8:40 p.m. uh in Chile and Argentina
so um but uh we'll have some great imagers at that time we'll be giving
away some door prizes in the evening as well and um uh and the uh the
astronomers of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be joining in in
that segment as well so it's going to be a lot of fun um and uh you know take
your vitamins uh uh get get some rest get something to eat um and come back
and watch we're going to be broadcasting all day so thanks very much thank you David thank you Steve it was awesome you
guys uh were amazing and a special thanks to Christopher go for going through all the effort uh to uh get that
mountain top uh observing uh point and for clearing the skies as he did
[Laughter] so very cool okay so we'll see you guys
uh we'll see you soon it's going to be less than um less it's going to be a couple of hours from now so I'll see you
guys uh logging back in take care and uh thanks thanks again
that was brilliant Steve thank you you did a brilliant job it was a wonderful
wonderful evening thank you David greatly appreciate that I always enjoy listening to you speak thank you Steve
do you remember the first name of Mr Mcall the fellow who suggested that um
he have an ancestor who was um it's his brother [Music]
Donald I think I think it was
Donald I don't I don't really
remember I hope he was listening because I was really wrong with [Music]
that have you heard of uh there's there's an author in
Canada his name is uh uh Dan Fulk he wrote a I know him yeah I know Dan yeah
okay yeah I saw him speak at um the Mr Saga Center um about science and
shakespear and and uh um it was quite an eye opener I
I I didn't really cut appreciate Shakespeare as I should have while I was in high school and I uh gained a a
greater appreciation for him afterwards oh yeah he was that he's I've