Venus and Jupiter Closing In!

[WCGucfa]

What could today's non-astro population be thinking of the spectacle adorning our evening sky?
Ancients would be praying, dancing, crying or laughing...etc., etc.
I will only speculate that modern non-sky gazers are puzzled by the phenomenon and are ordering extra
anchovies on their pizzas and can't explain why? It is quite amazing how the goings on in the heavens affect humans!

Jupiter and Venus were unbelievably beautiful last night (6/26), and wonderfully close at only 2 degrees!
Here's what it looked like in the skies of Little Compton. I've got to get back to my pizza!

Bill G.

Canon T1i, 3.2 seconds exposure @ f/4.5, 50mm lens, ISO 400. Star in upper left corner is Alpha Leonis (Regulus)

[Stargrrl]

Nice shot! I saw it myself and thought it was a gorgeous sight. Rebekah

[rjbokleman]

Beautiful!

What could today's non-astro population be thinking of the spectacle adorning our evening sky?

What sky?

What could today's non-astro population be thinking of the spectacle adorning our evening sky?

When those two objects in the sky collide, are we all going to die?



Hey, just about two years ago - I resembled those remarks! I'd done Astronomy when I was younger, but then 'life happens' and you forget the simply pleasures of just looking up at night. Feels great to be back.

[Apollo XX]

Simply gorgeous! Nice use of the roof lines and house silhouette.

[AndyG]

Nice image, Bill. Yes, that was a pretty sight last night!

[Ronald Z]

Bill, very nicely done! I, too, captured the pair on June 26th from West Hartford, CT.
See attached image.

enjoy,
Ronald Z

[WCGucfa]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. This feels like group observing without having to leave the house!
@Ron, thanks for interviewing the general public and posting their comments! :
@Ron Z., beautiful image. It pays to carry a couple of pine trees with you (the roof in my pic was VERY heavy)!

My plans/hopes for the 30th (if its clear,of course) is an image of V&J in the same eyepiece field, showing Jupiter's satellites, Venus's phase etc., all
without the blazing Goddess of Love wrecking the whole scene with her over-exposing ways.
I'm hoping ya' all will be backing me up on the better than great chance I fail. Oh yeah, and with minimal processing, because I'm terrible (lazy) at
post processing. Challenge anyone?

Bill G.

P.S. I'm only kidding about processing. If you can get the shot of the year with processing the heck out of your pic, that's O.K. You shouldn't be punished
just because I lost some learning brain cells back in the 60's!!
Good luck!
BG

[rjbokleman]

Jupiter and Venus drawing closer together as the month draws to a close. If you look closely you'll see all 4 of Jupiter's most visible Moons out of a total of 67. Ganymede off to the far left w/ IO and to the right, is Europa w/Callisto.

NOTE: This was the last photograph for evening, as you'll notice the heavy, heavy cloud layer coming in at the bottom of this frame. Shortly after this both planets were blacked out for good from my vantage point.

Single frame, 2.5" @ ISO 200.

[rjbokleman]

One more from last night. This time I intentionally over exposed Venus to get a bit of a flare / diffraction spike going, but still tried to keep Jupiter's Moons visible.

[WCGucfa]

Ron, EXCELLENT WORK!!
I wouldn't mind seeing just a tad more exposure.

Your images are tack sharp! So much for wondering if we could pick up the moons, planets and all,
without everything washing out! Congrats!
I'm hoping the weather won't come in tonight, as expected, until we can get more images.

Bill G.