Night Sky Photograhy -- 07-22-2020 -- Mars, Jupiter & Saturn

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Late last night, or maybe early morning depending on how y'all see it, I mounted my camera up on the tripod and took it out into my backyard. The skies, which had been cloudy thanks to the usual hit-and-run afternoon summer showers we're famous for here in the Carolinas, were not pleasantly clear. Luna was not in sight since the New Moon phase took place a couple of days before. At present the moon is low in the west after sunset as a very thin crescent. 

In the darkened skies I was able to easily spot three visible planets in the night sky.

In the south/southwestern sky, Jupiter and Saturn are still very close together, well at least as seen from Earth, and as I mentioned in a previous blog post both recently reached opposition with the orbit of our planet this month (Jupiter on July 13th and Saturn on July 20th). 

Looking to the east, Mars rises after midnight and shines a beautiful bright reddish glow in the late evening sky. Mars will begin to get slightly larger over the next few months as it makes a close approach to Earth -- the closest in 15 years, on October 6th.

Have a wonderful Dixie day, and keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!