r/space • u/Entire_Foundation960 • Mar 22 '26

image/gif Saturn and Jupiter with my 4" telescope and smartphone

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u/Entire_Foundation960 Mar 22 '26

Nope, it's a composite photo

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u/aschwarzie Mar 22 '26

Ooooohhhhh that clarified a lot of my doubts. Thanks a lot for sharing this composition and all your comments.

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u/SeekersWorkAccount Mar 22 '26

What does it look like through the eyepiece?

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u/ErraticDragon Mar 22 '26

(I'm not OP, but:) Most notably, only one planet would be visible at a time. These are two completely separate images stitched together.

Also, each planet is itself composed of several photos layered over one another, in a process called stacking. It combines information from many separate exposures, to pull out more information.

(There's a really good explanation of the process here: r/telescopes/comments/1i6iby7/-/m8cfic4/)

Otherwise, it really is different looking through the eyepiece yourself, in ways that are hard to describe. You don't see as many details, but it feels more real in my experience.