Moon Venus Mercury Aligned | 18 Mar 2018

The young new-moon emerged from the glare of the Sun last weekend. It is moving toward a second full-moon of the month on 31 March. Two full-moons also appeared in January. None in February. Also present in the early evening sky were Venus and Mercury (arrow). Enlarge the image to see Mercury.

Moon – Venus – Mercury | 7:41 pm CDT

About 1% of the Moon was illuminated at that time. It was a cooperative subject for this shot.

Moon | 7:42 pm CDT

Two hours later that evening our phone dinged with a text message from our son on the west coast. He attached this photo taken from his deck. It was fun to see the alignment again. Note that the Moon was a little higher relative to Venus in his photo.

Enlarge for more detail.

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Three Planets and Regulus

Our view from Iowa this morning toward the pre-dawn sky was clear. High in the dark sky was Venus. Planets Mercury and Mars were supposed to be about halfway down toward the horizon. I have looked for them the past few mornings with no success. Either I was late to look and the sky was too bright, or some clouds were in the way. This morning I looked earlier at 5:55am and the sky was very transparent. Success!

Reg is the star Regulus in the constellation Leo. It photo-bombed the scene next to Mercury.

ISO100 @5sec | Click for bigger

ISO100 @2sec | Zoomed in | Exposure adjusted for detail

The view this morning actually included four planets if you count the Earth beneath my feet.

Triple Planetary Conjunction May 24-31

The week ahead of May 24 -31 promises some wonderful views of a rare event, a triple conjunction of Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter in the evening sky. Look to the west soon after sunset at 8:30 or later. This is the view for May 24th. I hope your skies are clear.

Mercury orbits closest to the Sun, it has a fast orbit. Venus is next closest and less fast. Earth is also moving. Jupiter plods along taking much longer to orbit in it’s huge path. Because of the movement of each planetary body, the view of the conjunction each evening will change a little. Here is May 25th.

Images for the next six evenings are in the rest of the post. So, if your skies are cloudy one evening, don’t fret. This show will be prominent for the entire week. You ought to be able to see it on several of the evenings.