Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Ongoing Conjunction

I finally got a nice night to take a few pictures of the ongoing gathering of Venus, Saturn and Mars in the west after sunset. Not from Tucson, as I am traveling. This time from the Hume Observatory, home of the GORT telescope, in Sonoma County, California. So without futher ado, let's get to the pics.


Venus is the bright bright guy on the right between the trees. Mars is just above the tree in the center...Saturn is right above Mars.


Although its summer, I tried to evoke the decoration on the top of a Christmas tree.


Just as I was about to leave, I snapped one more picture. During the exposure, a car started up and illuminated the trees.

The conjunction is ongoing and you can watch it progress for the next couple of weeks. No telescope necessary, just a clear sky after sunset.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

5 comments:

SER said...

VERY cool pics Mr. Boppster.

Your last one with the car starting, what a capture!

OrbsCorbs said...

I like that one, too, and the star on the "Christmas tree."

kkdither said...

Gorgeous.. simply gorgeous! Is that a plane in the first picture? Did you use extended open shutter or did you capture a UFO? ;>

MinnesotaChick said...

Awesome pics! Thanks for posting these. I don't have a clear view of the W sky at night right now. :(

drewzepmeister said...

Very nice pics!