In the past few hours there was the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. Although the two gas giants of our Solar System were still approximately 700 millions of kilometers away in the sky seen from Earth they were separated by only less than a tenth of a degree at the moment of closest proximity. A phenomenon that rarely occurs with these characteristics. Astrophotographers all over the world were ready to immortalize the event, including Jason De Freitas .
The Great Conjunction and the International Space Station
De Freitas wanted to capture the event in a different way and for this he also immortalized the passage of the ISS between the two planets for “sign” a decidedly unusual triplet. In fact Jupiter and Saturn seem to approach each other in the celestial vault 20 years, but to get to such a reduced proximity one has to go back to March 4th of 1226 (well 794 Years ago). The photo also features the four Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
Then there is another peculiarity in the photo of the astrophotographer: instead of using modern digital cameras, an analog camera was employed. Specifications shown are camera body Pentax 67 , target Takumar 600 mm f / 4 , one mount Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro and film Fujifilm Provia 100 F . The first can be found for about 500 euro, the lens has a similar price ( even if it is not very easy to find) while the frame has a price of around 1000 euro.
Jason De Freitas wrote in the post “probably the most unique photo I’ve ever taken. I went to a precise spot an hour away to have the ISS travel between the two planets. The timing of all of this was under a second and still I can’t believe I did “. The photo was taken from New South Wales, Australia around 22 on the evening of 17 December 2020.
The event, however, also deserved a video shooting (13 ” video on YouTube) and so De Freitas chose to use a DSLR camera Nikon D 750 with a lens Tamron SP 70 – 200 mm F / 2.8 Di VC USD G2 . allowed to combine “old technology” with something more recent and allowing to have a double mode of capturing the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn .