It snowed more than a foot at my place on Dec 16 2020. I tried to dig a tunnel for my car on 17 but failed to accomplish it in two and half hour. Next 15 days are cloudy or mostly cloudy except on Dec 18 was the only day with chances of seeing Jupiter and Saturn as close as possible. That too Ventusky showed possibility bunch of clouds over Ithaca during that period. So I was planning to go to King Ferry area for viewing as it is one of the darker locations. On Dec 18, I started digging earlier so that I will have enough time. It took two and half hours to clean the car and rest of the snow so that my car could get out. I had about 45 min to spare. So again on Ventusky made sure that King Ferry area has clear skies. Based on Stellarium simulation the best time for viewing was from about 4.40 pm to 7.40 pm after which the planets would be below horizon.
At 3.45 pm I got ready to go with my camera and got into my car. I started the engine nothing happened. I restarted it again and this time I held it on for some time still nothing happened. After a couple of minutes, I gave a third try thinking third time was a charm. Hmm nothing happened. I looked at the sky it was clearing out, so thought maybe I should try it from home as I could not drive. Feeling sad, I sat in my car for 5 more minutes. I thought I will give it another try. Engine spluttered into life. I idled the car for next seven minutes to charge the battery. By that time sun was quickly going down the south western sky. I had about 40 minutes drive to the area I was planning to spend my time. I knew I could just make it just before the Jupiter starts being visible but it would be darker by that time. Another thought came to my mind what if after the viewing my car again would not start. Do I want to take the risk and my cell phone dies rapidly in cold weather? I decided to risk it. Temperature was falling down to 20 F. Thus I headed towards King Ferry.
I found that Nut Ridge Road had a good view crescent moon and the Jupiter should be quite close to it as per Stellarium simulation and should start appearing soon. I started getting my camera ready and was hoping to do time lapse video with 18 mm lens. In the olden days lenses had clearly marked location where it was infinity and where it was close focusing. But the modern auto focus lenses because of the way combination of the lenses work has no mark where the infinity is. I tried to auto focus moon first to find the infinity. But for some reasons my camera kept going out of focus and I could not determine where the infinity was. I tried rotating ring in all directions it kept moving and never ended in any one direction and I could not see the moon with 18 mm at all and my fingers were freezing. I tried with 80 mm same result. I was frustrated. I thought at least I can observe the planets with binocular. The planet Jupiter started showing up as a small point. As it got darker I could see the Saturn. I was expecting them to be very close to each other as it was just three days before the alignment. To my surprise they were quite a few minute arc apart. With binoculars I could see at least three moons of the Jupiter close to each other around 9.00 o’clock. There was one which is seemed at a distance of 4 times the disc of Jupiter. I am not sure it this was a moon or a distant star. I watched the Saturn for some time and then I started to feel I am seeing the rings. I am not sure if that was an illusion or my imagination or truth.
Then I decided to try my 500 mm lens which would mean I will just get the close up of the planets. It was very windy and my tripod shook though it was from the car I was shooting. My right hands fore finger was frozen and I felt no sensation. I tried shooting several frames most of them were shakes or there was movement of the planets. I just got couple of shots at 1/8 of second at 3200 ISO which might be called as better focused. At least I have proof that I observed the close alignment and don’t have to wait for another 800 years. I am glad I could get out and see it in spite of the all hurdles presented.
Crescent moon was visible and shot with the same setting as for the planets created Sabattier effect image and I thought it looks lovely!
