Night Sky Photography -- 01-30-2025 -- Mars & Jupiter With The Winter Circle Constellations

Good evening fellow stargazers!

As I close out the month of January 2025, I want to begin my wishing my readers a Happy Lunar New Year -- or the Year of the Wood Snake to this blog's fans across the Pacific.

Lunar New Year begin officially in 2025 on the evening of Wednesday, January 29th and into the morning hours of Thursday, January 30th here in North America with a moonless night time, or New Moon Phase.

It is on this moonless night that I was able to capture a wonderful photo of the planets Mars and Jupiter overhead at midnight. Both planets are quite bright compared to the larger but more distant giant stars nearest to them. Beautiful red Mars is of course still quite close to Earth in its orbit; while Jupiter, the largest planet on our Solar System, is easily visible overhead close to the reddish star, Aldebaran, in the Constellation Taurus the Bull.

Not only was the sky dome overhead clear of Lunar moonlight, but the cloudless sky made it easy for me to capture a really clear image of both planets and all the major stars that form the Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) asterism, and the six constellations that make them up.

The first is the original photo showing the position of the planets Mars and Jupiter in the sky overhead. A nearby power line pole was used in the foreground to provide an idea what the sky looked like standing and looking up. 

The other two shots are the same photo, but with the first outlining the positions of the constellations: Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, and Auriga overhead; and the final shot showing the Winter Circle and Winter Triangle asterisms as they appear. Jupiter is just outside of the Winter Circle in the vicinity of Taurus The Bull, while Mars is inside the Winter Circle in the Constellation Gemini.

The month of February 2025 will also be bringing some more opportunities for astronomical photography, God willing good weather and clear skies, of course. Until then have a wonderful Dixie evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, fellow stargazers!

Night Sky Photography -- 08-14/15-2024 -- Jupiter & Mars Conjunction With Morning Constellations!

The conjunction of Jupiter and Mars as seen from my back yard
just above the treetops about 85 minutes before sunrise.
You can also see the major morning stars of several constellations.

 

Since the start of August 2024, both Jupiter and Mars can be seen shining brightly in the eastern morning sky, moving ever closer to each other in their respective orbits around the Sun. I've been following its progress when clear skies permitted.

On the morning of Wednesday, August 14th, the two planets finally reached conjunction, appearing very close to each other -- less than a full moon’s width apart on the morning sky. Mars passed just over the top of Jupiter and will continue to appear to be close to the gas giant planet for at least one more early morning on Thursday, August 15th before the two planets move farther away from each other.

The following are the photos I took early this morning of the conjunction.

In my cover photo for this post above taken about 85 minutes before sunrise, y'all can see the two planets together in the early morning sky as I saw them from the vantage point in my back yard seeing them rising just above the tops of the tree line; along with some of the brightest stars of the morning constellations.

Both Jupiter and Mars can be see together just inside the Constellation Taurus The Bull near the bright red-giant star, Aldebaran -- the Eye of the Bull.

In my next photo, I labeled the two planets positions, along with all the nearby bright stars and the Hyades and Pleiades Star Clusters, and Orion's Belt asterism. I also included the approximate location of the distant planet Uranus near the Pleiades. This was taken about 75 minutes before sunrise.

In addition to the bright planets in close conjunction, y'all can see nearly all the major stars of the Constellations Orion, Taurus, Auriga, and Gemini. I outlined the constellations in their exact locations in my next photo. Both Jupiter and Mars are virtually in the center of the four visible constellations inside of Taurus.

My final photo for the morning of the 14th is a really good close-up of the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars, along with two of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa and Callisto, both visible in the shot. Europa is the smallest of the four Galilean Moons, and Callisto is the second largest of Jupiter's moon -- as well as the third-largest moon in our Solar System after Ganymede and Titan (Saturn's largest moon).

The next morning on Thursday, August 15th, I took two more photos of the conjunction and the morning stars, this time capturing both of the Gemini Twin stars just above the trees. Y'all can see now that Mars has begun moving past Jupiter and closer towards the east and sunrise. The close up shot of the plants now shows all four of the Galilean Moons now visible -- Io is just barely visible coming from just behind the gas giant planet.

While Mars appears close to the giant planet from our vantage point here on Earth, in reality the two planets are separated by a mean distance of around 342 million miles (or, about 550 million kilometers, or around 3.7 AUs give or take). Still, it makes a very impressive sight in the morning sky.

Well, once again I hope y'all enjoyed my photos of the conjunction. To all my fellow amateur stargazers out there: be sure to keep your eyes to the evening skies, y'all hear.

Night Sky Photography -- 03-06-2022 -- The Constellations And Major Stars Of The Winter Circle In One Shot!

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Happy March everyone! The month that sees the winter season give way to the renewal of the spring equinox on Sunday, March 20th.

In the evening and night sky dome the six main constellations that make up the Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) will continue to be visible in clear skies even as they continue to move west following the setting sun as winter gives way to spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

As I've mentioned in previous Night Sky Photography posts on this blog, the Winter Circle consists of seven bright stars in six separate constellations:

Pollux and Castor in the Constellation Gemini the Twins
Procyon in the the Constellation Canis Minor the Lesser Dog
Sirius in the Constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog
Rigel in the Constellation Orion the Hunter
Aldebaran in the Constellation Taurus the Bull
Capella in the Constellation Auriga the Charioteer

With the exception of the star Castor in the Constellation Gemini, the Winter Circle stars are all 1st-magnitude with Sirius (the Dog Star) being among the brightest stars in our sky. Castor is slightly fainter 2nd magnitude star, though still very bright and visible next to its companion twin, Pollux.

This evening, I was able to capture virtually all the major stars of five of the six constellations of the Winter Circle with one exception. Though I was able to capture the bright star Sirius, the Constellation Canis Major unfortunately would not completely fit in the frame from the only angle I was able to pick up all the stars of the other constellations with.

The following are the photos I was able to take, the first of the major stars in the Winter Circle (outlined in blue) and then the second photos outlining the constellations themselves in white with the Winter Triangle (outlined in red) inside the Winter Circle itself.

Oh and for those of y'all wondering, that small orb-like thing on the bottom right of the photographs is NOT a UFO! It's just the road light that blew out in my front yard recently that the folks at the power company has yet to fix. Thankfully the blown bulb allows for both some foreground scale, and for less light pollution where I didn't have to drive a few miles away to some open field for the shot, so no complaints there at all.

The Winter Circle will still remain fully visible throughout the rest of the month of March with our lovely moon passing between Aldebaran and the Pleiades Star Cluster this week on Tuesday, March 8th and Luna beginning her march through the Winter Circle phasing to First Quarter beauty on Thursday, March 10th. Y'all be sure to check that out -- God and clear skies willing that is.

Night Sky Photography -- 03-21-2021 -- Mars Now A Part Of The Winter Circle

Good evening y'all and, as of March 20th, the Northern hemisphere welcomes the spring equinox of 2021!

This evening I was able to capture all of the major constellations and the seven brightest stars of the Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) asterism in the night sky on two photographs. Throughout March, Earth's closest celestial neighbor, Mars will unofficially makes up the eighth bright "star" of the Winter Circle. Luna -- now in her waxing moon phase -- can be see just above the Constellation Orion.

I've highlighted the constellations, as well as the Winter Circle and Winter Triangle asterisms.

Capturing the entire Winter Circle in frame in a single photograph is difficult as the asterism is quite large. Procyon, Sirius, and the bright star Betelgeuse in Orion's right shoulder make up the Winter Triangle asterism.

As you can see all of the brightest stars of the constellations and Mars came out very well in both photos, even in the glare of the moon, I was able to just pick up the stars that made up Orion's club.

As I've mentioned before in previous blog posts, the Winter Circle consists of seven bright stars in six separate constellations: Capella (Constellation Auriga the Charioteer), Pullox & Castor (Constellation Gemini the Twins), Procyon (Constellation Canis Minor "The Lesser Dog"), Sirius (Constellation Canis Major "The Greater Dog"), Rigel (Constellation Orion the Hunter), and Aldebaran (Constellation Taurus the Bull).

All but one of the Winter Circle stars are 1st-magnitude -- the brightest stars visible in our sky. Castor is a slightly fainter 2nd magnitude star. Spotting all of these stars are fairly easy if you know where to look as they are among the first to appear about an hour after sunset.

Well folks I hope y'all enjoyed my first night sky photography of the new season. Have a good evening and y'all be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies.