Night Sky Photography -- 03-01-2023 -- Venus & Jupiter Conjunction In Western Sky

Good evening, fellow planet watchers!

Well, I was really worried that the skies tonight wouldn't clear up long enough for your favorite blogger to capture any good photos of the conjunction between Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky.

It was cloudy and even rained a little; more of the early spring that seems to be coming to South Carolina this year.

Fortunately, the weather seemed to clear about 7 PM EST and the clouds moved on giving a very good view of the two planets together in the sky dome.

I took three really good shots.

The first a wide shot giving the scale of the two planets as they appear in the night sky. Venus is the brightest planet in our night sky at a magnitude of 4.0, while Jupiter -- the largest planet in our Solar System and second brightest planet in Earth's sky dome -- appears half as bright at a magnitude of 2.1.

The second is a shot of the two planets next to my hanging U.S. Flag -- again for the sake of scale. As you can see the apparent distance between the two planets as seen from here on Earth, the two worlds appear about 0.5 degrees apart (about the width of the stars in my flag). In reality the two worlds are still 400 million miles (or 600 million kilometers) apart with our own Earth in the orbit between them.

The third, and final shot, is simply another close-up of the two planets together in the sky with the blooming tree branches in the foreground. I just took that one as my way of welcoming the month of March and the coming springtime (vernal equinox) to the Northern Hemisphere.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos for the evening, as I continue to enjoy presenting them for your enjoyment.