Greetings fellow stargazers!
On the morning of Monday, July 15, 2024, your favorite blogger had to wake up early -- about 90 minutes before sunrise to be exact -- to drive out into the country a little and find a nice spot to capture the conjunction of the planets Mars and Uranus. I was also able to capture some wonderful shots of the planet Jupiter and the bright red giant star, Aldebaran, in the Constellation Taurus the Bull.
After setting up my tripod, I captured this first photo over the tree line facing south-southeast. I decided not to label this one so you can get an idea of how I saw it for myself.
You
can see what appears to be two red points and a large bright point set
in a oblong triangle in the nautical twilight as they appeared to the
naked eye. The large bright spot is Jupiter, while the smaller red spots
are Aldebaran positioned to the right of Jupiter and the planet Mars in the upper corner.
Using the lens as a filter to capture more points of light not quite visible to the naked eye, I captured nearly all the stars of the Hyades Star Cluster -- which make up the "face" of the Constellation Taurus the Bull -- and the nearby Pleiades Star Cluster between Mars and the current position of Uranus in the night sky as seen from the Earth's surface. The wider shot also captured the nearby stars Elnath and Capella closer to the east and coming sunrise. The close up shot shows both the Hyades and Pleiades clusters more clearly.
Using the lens as a filter to capture more points of light not quite visible to the naked eye, I captured nearly all the stars of the Hyades Star Cluster -- which make up the "face" of the Constellation Taurus the Bull -- and the nearby Pleiades Star Cluster between Mars and the current position of Uranus in the night sky as seen from the Earth's surface. The wider shot also captured the nearby stars Elnath and Capella closer to the east and coming sunrise. The close up shot shows both the Hyades and Pleiades clusters more clearly.
Mars
is easy to spot due to its bright red-orange hue, though distant Uranus
is impossible to see with the naked eye and requires a really good lens
to spot. Thankfully I have a good 35X Sony Optical Zoom lens on my camera and, at maximum magnification, was successfully able to
capture a really good close-up of the two planets together at just
half-a-degree apart.
Although they appear to be
"meeting" in the early morning sky from out vantage point here on the
surface of the Earth; the two worlds are actually quite a distance
apart.
The large ice giant planet Uranus, the 7th planetary body in our Solar System, is roughly about 1.86 billion miles (just over 3 billion kilometers, or 20.16 AUs) from our Earth at the moment, while Mars, the 4th planet and our nearest planetary neighbor, is about 155 million miles (around 250 million kilometers, or 1.67 AUs) from Earth.
Finally, I took a couple of good shots of Jupiter, now currently a part of the Constellation Taurus for at least the next month in the early mornings. The first show a close-up of Jupiter with bright red Aldebaran, the "Eye of the Bull" close by. The final show captures all the stars of the Hyades Cluster, which I highlight outlining the head of the Constellation Taurus.
The large gas giant planet, Jupiter, the 5th planet in the solar system, is currently about 532 million miles (857 million kilometers, or 5.7 AUs) from the Earth. Aldebaran is much father away at a distance of approximately 65 light-years from our Sun and is the 14th brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth.
Later this month, on Tuesday, July 30th, the crescent moon will cross between Mars and Jupiter in the early morning sky. Over the next month both planets will continue to move closer to each other towards their own conjunction in the morning sky on Monday, August 12, 2024....which I hope to be able to photograph, God and good clear skies willing.
Well folks, I hope that y'all enjoyed my photos and to all my fellow amateur sky watchers be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear.
The large ice giant planet Uranus, the 7th planetary body in our Solar System, is roughly about 1.86 billion miles (just over 3 billion kilometers, or 20.16 AUs) from our Earth at the moment, while Mars, the 4th planet and our nearest planetary neighbor, is about 155 million miles (around 250 million kilometers, or 1.67 AUs) from Earth.
Finally, I took a couple of good shots of Jupiter, now currently a part of the Constellation Taurus for at least the next month in the early mornings. The first show a close-up of Jupiter with bright red Aldebaran, the "Eye of the Bull" close by. The final show captures all the stars of the Hyades Cluster, which I highlight outlining the head of the Constellation Taurus.
The large gas giant planet, Jupiter, the 5th planet in the solar system, is currently about 532 million miles (857 million kilometers, or 5.7 AUs) from the Earth. Aldebaran is much father away at a distance of approximately 65 light-years from our Sun and is the 14th brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth.
Later this month, on Tuesday, July 30th, the crescent moon will cross between Mars and Jupiter in the early morning sky. Over the next month both planets will continue to move closer to each other towards their own conjunction in the morning sky on Monday, August 12, 2024....which I hope to be able to photograph, God and good clear skies willing.
Well folks, I hope that y'all enjoyed my photos and to all my fellow amateur sky watchers be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear.
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