The Evening Star Returns

[Apollo XX]

January, along with being the first month of 2015 heralds the return of our Evening Star to the western sky at sunset. Just look west right after sunset to catch Venus popping out of the bright twilight, and as the month progresses be sure to look for Mercury in close proximity to Venus as they both make their way toward eastern elongation.

Venus as seen at 5:00pm on January 1st, easy naked eye but no Mercury yet:

[WCGucfa]

Hi Mike,

Professionally speaking, your choice of black and white is an excellent choice, and well,
very professional-like.

Bill G.

[AndyG]

Beautiful image, Mike!

[Apollo XX]

Gentlemen, thank you!

[Apollo XX]

Not only has the always lovely evening star returned to the western sky at twilight, but now she's brought along a friend. Venus and Mercury at just past 5:00pm local time today, January 5th, 2015. Yes, it was DAMN cold getting this picture!

[WCGucfa]

Hey Mike,

I was hoping you would get this shot! I was doing a little grocery shopping on the way home from work
and saw the same thing, but no camera. The first thing I thought was, ' wonder if Mike can see the rays too?'
I had very little doubt you were out there! NICE JOB!!

P.S. I caught Lovejoy again last night. I'll try to post the images tonight. The cold and high wind was horrible!

Bill G.

[Apollo XX]

Hey Bill,

Weren't those crepuscular rays amazing??? The sun was a good solid 8* below the horizon when that was shot, and the rays spanned nearly the entire western horizon.

And yes that wind was horrible! I stupidly walked away from the camera and tripod for a second to get the binos, and you know what I'm going to say...craaassssshhhhh! Luckily I had most of the adjustments just snug enough to hold position, so it was able to move when it hit the ground and only got scratched up a little. I was expecting the whole broken LCD deal and everything.

The field where I take these shots is my only really low western horizon that's local to me, and it's probably 500 yards to that tree line. The wind rips across there and just sucks the heat out of me every time I go there to shoot. I can't believe how fast my hands get cold in that situation, and I've yet to figure out working those silly little buttons with gloves on. I've got to come up with something though, because as you know the only way to get a lot of this stuff is to wait it out. What, Old Master, are you using in those situations?

[WCGucfa]

Mike, I haven't learned anything. Take Lovejoy imaging last night.
After promising myself that I would keep my gloves on, eventually, some fumble of the equipment
made me rip them off and pay the painful price. I actually questioned whether or not the feeling
in my digits would return and that ache would go away (you KNOW that ache).

BG- Glad your camera survived!

[Bruce D]

Mrs. ASSNE Prime got me a pair of gloves for Xmas that have a zipper on each thumb so you can keep the gloves on while pushing buttons or typing on a smart phone. Probably wouldn't be quite as useful for a computer keyboard though

[Apollo XX]

So our charming duo graced the evening sky again yesterday, apparently unfazed by the encroaching arctic air mass that had us all running for cover and lighting fires. Venus and Mercury on January 7th, 2015 at about 5:10pm EST:


And then wouldn't you know it, as serene as the scene of our two inner planets dancing in their early evening courtship rituals is, before you could say "I'm freezing and I'm outa here" along comes a giant space lizard with obvious malicious intent. Fortunately the God of Wind (aka "Capitan Jet Stream") came along and severed the head of the beast before he could consume his hot little prey. How cute!