Dance Planets Dance!

The Dance of the Planets is underway and the skies have been more or less cooperating, for a change.  Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury are snuggling right up to each other and following the Sun down in the western sky.  On May 31st they will line up vertically, equally apart, before continuing their slow separation. Fingers crossed for clear skies.

Here's last nights show. Venus is lowest, top left is Jupiter, right is Mercury.

50mm, f8, 1sec, ISO100

This telephoto image shows the Galilean Moons, from left to right: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io.

300mm, f7.1, 1.6sec, ISO200

Tonight was less clear but I perservered.  Jupiter had swooped  in closer to make a tighter, nearly equilateral triangle.

50mm, f5.3, 5sec, ISO100

Conjunction Junction

Tonight is the closest Moon and Jupiter conjunction until 2026. The Moon and Jupiter are only approx 1 degree apart, about the width of a finger on your outstretched hand. The visible Galilean Moons from left to right are Ganymede, Io, and Callisto (the three that line up on the same plane nearest Jupiter). Europa is on the left side but is lost in the glare of Jupiter. 

Somehow, I drove through one of the worst blizzards I've ever experienced and when I got home the sky was perfectly clear!   This is a composite of two exposures to reclaim the detail in the Moon.

Moon - f6.3 1/320sec ISO640    Jupiter - f6.3 1 sec ISO 640