This scene features a grouping of Venus and Mars that has played out since November 2002 and will continue through January.  Here we see Venus in Ophiuchus, still well north of the ecliptic, shining at magnitude -4.38, while Mars shines at magnitude +1.40 in Libra.  The two are separated by 10°45'39" on this morning.

This photo was taken with a Nikon FE2 camera with I'm guessing a 55 mm lens. Based on the lack of any movement shown in the trees, it's likely I didn't track the motions of the stars but had the lens all the way open to f/1.2.

This chart shows that the path by Venus and Mars from November 2002 to January 2003 began with Venus' inferior conjunction, and then an appulse sometime between December 10 - 12, after which Venus pulled away from Mars.

To see the unannotated photo, click here.