Venus in the Pleiades

Tonight and tomorrow night Venus will be passing through the Pleiades star cluster (also known as Messier 45 or M45) as seen from Earth. the planet isn't really passing "through" the cluster but just positionally appears to be passing the cluster as seen from our planet. A 400mm lens and a full frame digital camera were used to image the conjunction.

Below is an image shot through a Celestron C5 with a 0.63X focal reducer using a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV. Note the peculiar internal reflections. Sigh.

A gathering of planets

This evening four planets (Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury)and the Moon bunched together in the western sky - a conjunction. I had a front row seat for the presentation, being atop Mount Lemmon hoping to get some shots of the Persied meteor shower peaking tonight. If I don't succeed in the later - the show in the early evening was reward enough.

Tough Shoot

As an amateur astrophotographer, I'm always on the lookout for challenging astronomical events to photograph. Well - tonight, a gathering of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (called a conjunction) was visible at sunset.

Below is the view through a 300mm lens. A tough shot to get - the moon was only 23 hours past new and only 3 degrees above the horizon. This image was obtain just 2 minutes before Venus set behind the distant Tucson Mountains.