Over the roofs and far away

The full Moon with Jupiter and Saturn in Conjunction July 2020 - Canon 600d DSLR composite of three images at differing exposure duration and focal length to encompass the large dynamic range of these celestial bodies.- Credit Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert

The weather has been very mixed and this has prevented the Observatory team from imaging the  new comet in the early morning skies over East Anglia - Comet NEOWISE. The comet is visible to the naked eye and sports a fine bifurcated tail. Locally, the comet has been seen from Brancaster Beach in Norfolk. Our best chance may be towards the end of July when it becomes an early evening object just after sunset  above the horizon in the north west. In the meantime the clouds parted for an hour or so such that I could take a few impromptu images of the 'Full Moon, Jupiter and Saturn conjunction'. I managed to capture some RAW images from the window of the Jodrell Plank Visitor Suite and then asked our Imaging Team Leader Pip Stakkert to create a composite image enabling the serious moonlight to be controlled, whilst enabling the four Galilean Moons orbiting Jupiter to be resolved. Can you spot them? -  Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Enlarged crop taken from the above image - Jupiter is bright above and to the left of the Moon and Saturn is fainter and to the left of both.