In July 2010, we are seeing the beginning of an interesting planetary gathering as Mars rapidly gains on Saturn, while Venus even more rapidly gains on both of them.  On this date, Venus has just passed Regulus, Mars has just drawn even with σ Leonis, and Saturn is between β and η Virginis.  Venus is magnitude -4.09, Mars is +1.40, and Saturn is +1.09.  The photo was taken with a Nikon D40 and 28 mm lens, which yields an image scale that equates to a 42 mm lens with a full frame camera.  Unannotated image