Last night, photographers and stars from around the world were treated to the Great Conjunction, an event in which Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer to each other in the sky than they had for hundreds of years. Countless photos were undoubtedly captured from the rare eye, but photographer Jason De Freitas caught a particularly lucky one a few days ago, showing the ISS closing between the two planets.
While Jupiter and Saturn appear almost together in the sky once every 20 years or so, the last time they were as close as during the Great Conjunction came back on March 4, 1226 or 794 years ago.
As he planned to photograph the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, De Freitas realized that he could include the ISS in the frame.
“I was incredibly lucky to learn that I could see the path of the International Space Station traveling through the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction,” says De Freitas.
After a lot of planning, on December 17, De Freitas drove for an hour – “a fairly short distance in terms of things,” he says – to a location where everything would be perfectly aligned for his shot.
Around 9:54 pm at Jellore Lookout in New South Wales, Australia, De Freitas aimed his Pentax 67 and Takumar 600mm f / 4 at the planets and captured a 10-second exposure on Fujifilm Provia 100f. The tracking was done with a Skywatcher NEQ6 equatorial mount.
The photo above is the result. Here is a closer crop in which you can see more clearly the planets and moons of Jupiter:
De Freitas also used a Nikon D750 and Tamron 70-200mm f / 2.8 to capture digital videos of the event:
“Probably the most unique photo I’ve ever taken,” says De Freitas. “[S]somehow everything worked at night. Beyond delighting him.
“The timing of this has dropped to the second and I still can’t believe I have succeeded.”
Earlier this year, De Freitas shared an inside look at how he shoots astrophotography on medium-format (and occasionally 35mm) films. You can also find more of De Freitas’ work on his website and on Instagram.