Matt you're an absolute hero, trying to get Saturn tonight and Stellarium is exactly what I needed! It's for a charity scavenger hunt, and my set up isn't great, so if you manage to get one you don't mind 'donating' for a limited audience tonight I'd be really grateful.

Thanks, Matt! So looking forward to it! As of Friday our forecast for Monday is partly cloudy, so fingers are crossed. This one will require a mountain hike in 30 inches of snow, so if those skies clear I'm going up!

Awesome vid Matt, I cannot wait to see what you get!

Tip #6 go out in the nights, before, and start practicing. Its no guarantee that night of the 21st is going to be cloud free, so get what you can any clear night.

Good presentation Matt,

Thank You !! wishing me luck with my limited set up

I am going to try this - we are in Dallas/Fort Worth, no clouds tonight -going to go West away from the city. Will be using a Canon 5DSR with 500mm prime with 2xconverter - never tried it before - so why not? LOL Thanks for all the advice

Thanks Matt, we're expected to have rain tonight but clear tomorrow so I'll try then with my Nikon P1000. Hope it is clear for you tonight.

Thank you for this! I didn't know about Stellarium!

Excellent advice!

Great info there bro.

I just thought of another thing that is simplistic, but might have been a good tip. Shoot in manual. I went out rather early, before the sky was black. Many people don't realize that the planets are reflecting sunlight so all their exposures of the stars are blown out. Since I was shooting for the planets exclusively, by stopping down to get the planets exposed close to correctly, the sky turns black. I think that could have been a helpful tip. I've taught some high schoolers that tip and they come back with some great images that are "made" not just taken. Manual is a good thing for people to know how to use. Since I shoot a lot of pro sports in stadiums where the light is consistent, manual is a great way to go. If I change dug outs, the light on the players is different. The camera is fooled by the background light there, too.

Maybe you're right that I was a bit pretentious having been a professional for quite a while. Pittsburg is definitely different from Tucson where it was easier to shoot up at the conjunction, rather than across to the horizon. Some of the more useful information I got from going out days in advance of the conjunction was that turning off the image stabilizer would be a good move. I shot with a 500 f/4 and a 1.4 extender on a Canon DSLR. I did not think about the APS sensor because I don't have a camera with an APS sensor, but that would have been advantageous, too. Since you are talking about Astrophotography, I supposed, that you were talking about people who would be shooting with telescopes or long long lenses. My bad for being presumptuous.

no clouds at 15 in the northeast facing west south west.?? No chance

Thanks a lot!

i have a FF sony and only a 24 - 105mm lens. wonder if i could shoot through one eye of high powered (20X80) binoculars if it is on a professional tripod?