I learned that the brightest stars in the night sky are usually planets. Therefore, is the brightest one here likely Saturn? Looks like it has ring(s) around it. Or perhaps, what appears to be rings, is just other heavenly objects (like other stars, etc...)....

Notably, not the best image - as is taken with a 300mm lens. However, the likes of Galileo and Copernicus didn't even have access to images magnified at even this level - I read that Galileo's telescope magnified a mere 3x.

Click in middle of image below, once at the flickr page, to zoom in closer....

[jbinpg]

Looks like Jupiter rather than Saturn with a couple of its brighter moons visible.

[Not a Number]

Jupiter. If you are able to see some of the moons of Saturn you would definitely see the rings as well.

Object on lower left is probably the star Fomalhaut. Saturn would be to the lower right of Jupiter. A longer exposure or even playing with the brightness of your photo should show Saturn.

Couple of resources:
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupit...aturn-mercury/
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/

[Spock]

I would suggest trying a much shorter exposure to avoid Saturn looking like a bright light - a fast shutter speed will also negate the need for a tripod. Basically your image should look completely black until you zoom in.

Here's my recent attempt at Saturn with a K3 Mk3 and a 34 year old F*300mm lens, handheld. The image is straight out of the camera, with no post processing, but heavily cropped.
1/750sec, F4.5, ISO 800



And here is Jupiter: Handheld with K3 Mk3 @ f4.5, 1/750s, ISO 200. Image again heavily cropped. Jupiter is currently the second brightest planet in the sky after Venus.



By the way, by my reckoning, on a APC sensor, a 300mm lens gives a magnification of 9x. About the same as a pair of binoculars.

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Last edited by Spock; 09-17-2021 at 01:34 AM.

[PJ1]

I am gong to stick my neck out and say it may be Saturn. I looked at your pic under full magnification and there seem to be a couple of dim spots on either side of it at roughly the same angle as the image provided by @Spock. That is the way the rings would look when the telescope is struggling (and I believe that our friend Galilleo originally thought there were three objects side by side).I have an old Bushnell Spacemaster telescope that I acquired in the 1970s. It has a 15-4X zoom eyepiece and, back in the day, at 45X you could distinguish Saturn quite easily. Nothing spectacular but you could see what you were loooking at briefly, before it tracked out of the field of view. My advice would be (if you can) to put a 2X teleconverter on your set up and try again using the settings that have been suggested. You will not get an astronomical masterpiece but you may get the satisfaction of being able to say "Yes. That is Saturn". Or you will know that it is Jupiter by the moons

[Grimmus]

Another vote for Jupiter - both are in the same part of the sky at the moment but moving further apart after being close together (conjunction) at the end of 2020. Check out Stellarium.org on the interweb and you should be able to confirm from the time you took the photo, your location and the other star in the image. Jupiter is considerably bigger/brighter than Saturn so if you were pointing at the brightest thing you could see.......Jupiter.

Disclaimer: these opinions are my own and should not be relied on in any situations that involve large sums of money

[MikeNArk]

Based on brightness alone, I'd guess Jupiter.

[DeKay]

Looking at the date and time the photo was taken and the position of the moons, its almost certainly Jupiter.
by , on Flickr