A stellar image of Saturn is taken from the garage roof by an astronomer

Saturn is now at its closest point to Earth in the year – and one photographer (Andrew McCarthy) got an amazing shot of it.

An astrophotographer has published an incredible image of Saturn after travelling across the US and setting up his equipment on the roof of a garage.

Arizona-based photographer Andrew McCarthy snapped a wondrous image of the ringed planet as it moved into opposition.

Opposition is the point at which Saturn lies directly opposite the sun from the point of view of Earth. The planet also happens to be currently at perigee – meaning it’s at it’s closest orbital point to Earth.

All of which transpires to make a great photo.

Ironically, McCarthy says he had actually moved away from California to Arizona in search of darker skies. But he made the trip back when monsoon rains threatened to get in the way of recent celestial events like the Perseids meteor shower, supermoon and – of course – Saturn’s appearance.

I had to drive to California to get this one. My clearest image of Saturn, at it's closest to Earth. Captured from the roof of a parking garage after driving all day. pic.twitter.com/ZfnHoep4Kj

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) August 15, 2022

‘I found a parking garage with a completely empty upper level,’ McCarthy told Fox Weather.

‘I pulled out my telescope and all my stuff and started shooting Saturn.’

Equipped with a telescope and two cameras, McCarthy said he used an infrared light filter to capture the shape of the planet and the rings.

The final image is actually several images layered over each other to create the composite. The bright dots in the picture are some of Saturn’s moons.

‘With planetary photography, it’s very different than a lot of other types of celestial photography because the planets themselves are just so small,’ he explained.

Planets Jupiter and Saturn (C, top) are seen above the Los Angeles skyline as seen from the Griffith Observatory in 2020.

‘The air currents will just basically just fold over the image of Saturn and Jupiter or whatever and completely obscure details.

‘So it’s very important that you get the calmest skies possible, and it goes all the way up to the upper atmosphere.’

The response to the fantastic picture seems to have been so strong that McCarthy has wasted no time selling prints of it on his online store, which you can find here.

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