Venus Crescent

We went to a spot with a clear southwest view hoping to see comet Leonard. The conditions weren’t quite favorable. Instead, we admired the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. I pointed my camera on full zoom to Venus. It is currently rounding its orbit and passing us between the Sun and Earth. See the orbit diagram below.

We are seeing mostly the shadowed side of Venus. A thin crescent reflects off its surface. In the early days of January it will be almost directly between us and the Sun and not visible in the glare. It will emerge in the early morning hours by mid-January. It will remain our morning companion until October. This thinning crescent remains as our last view of 2021. The crescent will reverse next month.

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS | ISO 800 | 1/400 s

© Dominic Ford 2011–2021

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Venus | Morning Now

At 5:11 am…

Venus and Jupiter Rising

It was early on 20 Jan 2018. There they were, nicely paired behind the trees. Venus is the brightest. I set the iPad on the mantel for a long exposure (~20 min) to document their rise. Some stars joined them.

NightCap Camera | https://www.nightcapcamera.com/

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.

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.

Venus | The Iowa View

Venus continues to appear as a thinner crescent each night. Thin clouds dimmed the view at 6:36 last evening.

100 ISO @1/250s

Moon | Venus | Can You Tell Which?

A quiz for you…

How I See It

One of these images is of the Moon on 2 Feb 2017. The other image is of Venus on 3 Feb. Can you tell which is which? What is your reasoning?

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Venus … Meet Mr. Moon

by Jim and Melanie

The view to our west on October 7 about 45 min after sundown was beautiful. The new Moon and Venus were aligned perfectly. Here is a little more zoomed view of the Moon. Isn’t the subtle Earthshine nice?

One thing is for sure. The closure of the government offices is not going to keep us from seeing views like these. That is a good thing.

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.