Post Event Report

In the Sky – Saturn at the upper right corner, Conjunction of Mars & Jupiter in the middle and Venus shining at the lower left side.
On the terrace, starting from the left – 12-inch SCT, 14-inch SCT, 16-inch Aperture Telescope and ‘Orange’ 8-inch Dobsonian
On the left – View of Mars & Jupiter together in the same field of view on the 14-inch telescope, shot with a cell phone.

All Planet Night Observation – Aperture Telescopes Astro Facility – Manesar

The evening and the early night was 100% clouded over, completely overcast, creating apprehension in the minds of the observers. Checking the weather prediction it seemed that the cloud cover would start to dissipate at around 2:00 – 2:30. Much to our happiness the prediction came exactly true.

First to appear was Saturn. As we turned our telescopes towards we were able to see Titan alongwith.

It was a beautiful sight. The conjunction of Mars & Jupiter was the main attraction of the all planet night. The steady clockwork rhythm of our solar system has brought the two planets, Mars & Jupiter, in close proximity of less than a degree as seen from the planet Earth. But in reality there was a distance of about 3.85 Astronomical Units separating them. We were able to see the two planets in the same field of view of the telescope.

A mixed group of about 35, consisting of amateur astronomers mingled together with beginners in astronomy at our Astro Facility.

End of May and first half of June 2022, the planets are aligned in such a way that ALL the planets can be seen before dawn.

It is an infrequent occurrence to see all of the planets in the Solar System observable in one night. Sometimes there are nights when all of the planets are visible from dusk to dawn, some planets are visible in the evening after sunset and some visible in the morning before sunrise, but to see all of the planets in the same quadrant of the sky at the same time is indeed rare.

On Sunday, 29th May, the line-up of the planets will stretch from southern direction where Saturn will be visible, and going towards the eastern horizon where Mercury would be rising just before sunrise. The order of planets goes like this – Saturn in Capricornus, Neptune, Jupiter and Mars in Pisces, just across the border of Aquarius, bright Venus on the other side in Pisces adjacent to the border with Aries, Uranus in Aries and Mercury in Taurus. Thin crescent Moon would be rising just after Uranus in Aries constellation.

The best part of the night is that Jupiter and Mars are in close conjunction, less than a degree apart and visible in the same field of view of a telescope.

Join us on Sunday early morning on the 29th May, at our Manesar Astro Facility to observe and photograph the planets with several large telescopes lined up just for you.

Planetary Astrophotographers welcome, two large telescopes will be dedicated for astrophotography.

(The image above was clicked in February 2016, at Binsar in the Himalayas, when five planets were visible at dawn. A time-lapse video of the planet parade on the same night can be seen below.)

Several telescopes will be available for the available at our Astro Facility for your use.

1. 20-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
2. 16-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
3. 14-Inch Celestron SCT on CGE-Pro mount,
4. 12-Inch Meade SCT on LX200 mount,
5. 8-Inch Celestron SCT on Atlas EQ6 mount.

We will also be have the ‘First Light’ our new Planetary Dobsonian, the 10-inch f/10 truss tube telescope, on this observation night.

We welcome you to come & observe the All Planet Parade at our Astro Facility, any time after midnight, till dawn.

Planet Parade from Ajay Talwar on Vimeo.