Night Sky Photography -- 05-13/15-2021 -- The Moon & The Smallest Of The Inner Planets

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This weekend looking towards the west y'all can see the waxing crescent moon with all of the inner planets in the night sky -- but only if you have a clear view of the horizon.

Venus is currently situated in the sky dome on the horizon chasing the setting sun. Unless you have an unobstructed view of the horizon then seeing the bright wandering "evening star" will be difficult.

While I was unfortunately unable to get a good shot of Venus (the cloudy skies were also a factor) I was able several beautiful shots of Luna in her waxing crescent phase meeting with the two smaller planets, Mercury (May 13th) and Mars (May 15th).

These three evening planets plus our planet Earth are called the inner (inferior) planets, to distinguish them from the outer (superior) planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune -- and yes Pluto too which is still a planet no matter what some astronomers claim!

On the evening of May 15th, the waxing crescent moon joined Mars inside the Constellation Gemini The Twins. As you can see in the first photo, there are the two bright twin stars, Pollux and Castor, above Luna and Mars, with a smaller bright star just visible beneath the moon.

The yellow supergiant star Mebsuta -- also know as Epsilon Geminorum -- marks Castor's right leg. At about 840 light years distant from our solar system, Mebsuta is a G8 lb star about 8,500 times brighter than our Sun with an estimated radius of between 105-175 times that of our star.

Epsilon Geminorum’s traditional name, Mebsuta, comes from the ancient Arabic Mabsutah, which means "the outstretched paw." In Arabic culture, Epsilon and nearby Zeta Geminorum represented the paws of a lion.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my presentation this evening. I hope to have some more night sky photography again by the end of the month when Mercury and Venus meet in close conjunction on the evening of May 28th.

Until then have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!