Planet Scenes 2017
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Saturn and Moon, Nov 20 Saturn was joined by a beautiful crescent Moon on the evening of November 20. |
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Great American Eclipse, Aug 21 The eclipse saros successor to the Aug 1999 eclipse over Europe and West Asia finally came to North America, gifting the entire country with an eclipse from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Although not of great duration, most of the country experienced good weather and as a result millions of people saw totality. |
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Venus in Pisces, Mar 4 Venus is three weeks away from inferior conjunction and as such it has been sinking dramatically in the west after sunset. Here we see the brightest planet well north of the ecliptic as it begins its retrograde loop back towards the Sun. |
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Venus Crescent, Mar 4 I tried imaging Venus' crescent phase as it nears inferior conjunction by using my Nikon D40 with an Orion 100mm f/6 achromat telescope, which has a focal length of 600mm. The result was a little overexposed but the atmosphere must have been fairly steady. Inferior conjunction would come three weeks from today, on March 25. I cropped and enlarged it significantly LOL. |
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Mars and Uranus, Mar 4 A week after our last picture, we check in on the pairing of Mars and Uranus, still in Pisces. Mars has overtaken Uranus and is not far from reaching Aries. I also highlighted the planets' colors just to illustrate the fact that even with a normal lens it is possible to capture the color of Uranus. |
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Venus, Mars and Uranus in Pisces, Feb 25 From the Blue Ridge Parkway, I got a nice shot of three planets in the evening sky. Venus is nearing its inferior conjunction, Mars is ending its 2016 apparition by racing along the ecliptic, clinging to visibility in the west after sunset, and Uranus is losing ground to the Sun much more quickly. |
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