Crescent Moon aligned with Venus
Wed. Dec 6, 2021
The crescent moon caught my eye, while walking past our windows. I grabbed my camera, switched settings and went outside to take a few night sky photos. That is not a speck of dust on your computer screen, that is Venus! Not very exciting to look at a white dot, but it's so cool that we can see something 38 million-ish miles away!!
After shooting the moon, I had to google to find out which planet was directly above it. I learned this was the beginning of a special week of planet/moon alignment. Each evening from December 6-10 the moon would line up with a different visible planet. First Venus, the next night Saturn and then Jupiter. The last two nights, all three planets and the moon would stretch in a long straight line across the southwestern sky.
I had planned on doing Sunday Stills on your left challenge as a night sky series. From my vantage point, the moon is on my left at this time of year. However, it was cloudy the remaining nights. I was able to see a little of the moon/venus/saturn/jupiter alignment on the last night, between the break in the clouds.
I switched my minimalist photo to black and white. Simplicity is always best viewed enlarged.
If interested, here is a link with a great moon phase graphic and explanation.
5 comments:
Great idea, we have city lights here so no night sky for me!
Wow! I had no idea that was happening. How cool!!
I have been trying to watch this too! I keep thinking that I should go out and photograph the ridge in the moonlight while there is still snow on the ground.
As far as SS's. I completely blew it. I got sidetracked by snow and way off track.
Very cool about the moon/planet alignments. Special things seem to happen around Christmas time .
I never stay up late enough any more to see what's going on in the night sky. Did you know that there was a comet visible for about 3 days last week?
Val, it is never too late for SS.
Hmm, not sure Shirley. I recently read about an upcoming comet named Leonard, not visible to the naked eye. Required optics of some kind to see a tiny white ball with a tail. Lol! Thought it was last week, but just googled and looks like Leonard is visible this week. Apparently if you follow the line up of the three planets, one can see the comet below Venus. I didn't know they were still lined up! Leonard is also dubbed the Christmas Comet, and I agree special things seem to happen around Christmas.
The nice thing about night sky activity at this time of year is it happens earlier. I rarely stay up late anymore either. The shot above was shortly after we brought the horses in at twilight. I was rushing and regret not getting a wide shot with colors in it. Everything sky changes at such a rapid pace!!
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