Night Sky Photography -- 09-13-2025 -- The Moon With Uranus & The Pleiades In Late Evening Sky

Greetings & Salutations, fellow amateur stargazers!

I stayed awake pretty late yesterday evening to capture some really good photos of the Moon with the Pleiades Star Cluster (also known as the "Seven Sisters") and the very faint distant planet, Uranus, in a near triangle in the eastern sky just above the treetops.

Uranus, the 7th planet in our Solar System, is currently 1.78 billion miles (or 2.86 billion kilometers) from Earth and you really have to know where to look to spot it. Even then it only appears faintly through a good pair of binoculars, or a telescope. I was fortunate enough to catch Uranus in the close-up photo of the three heavenly bodies. In my other photos I marked the approximate place Uranus sits.

In my second photo is a close-up shot of Luna with the Pleiades where I was able to capture all of the major stars of the Seven Sisters cluster and many of their companion stars. This one came out beautifully with the Pleiades just past the bright glare of the Moon.

In my wider shots, I captured most of the nearby major stars of the Constellations: Taurus The Bull, Auriga The Charioteer, and Perseus The Hero. I caught the more open Hyades Star Cluster (the "head" of Taurus) just above the trees -- y'all can see the reddish tint of the red giant star, Aldebaran.

I labeled all the major stars of each constellation, as well as outlined the constellations themselves to put them in relation to the current positions of the Moon and Uranus in the night sky.

If any of y'all want to try and locate Uranus for yourselves, she will be close to the Pleiades for a good while since her orbit around the Sun is slow -- it actually takes about 84 Earth years for Uranus to complete a single orbit around the Sun!

Look for Uranus about one degree (or the length of the tip of your pinky finger on your outstretched arm)  southeast of the Pleiades as they rise in the eastern sky.

Another good opportunity to see all three of these beautiful night sky features together again will come next month on the morning of Friday, October 10th, when Luna will actually occult -- or cross in front of -- the Pleiades. Uranus will still be relatively close and should appear just outside of the Moon's glare.

I hope y'all enjoyed this post and as always keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.

Night Sky Photography -- 07-21-2025 -- The Moon & Venus With Taurus The Bull Before Sunrise

About 90 minutes before sunrise this morning, I was able to capture this outstanding shot of the moon and Venus rising in the east with all the major stars of the Constellation Taurus The Bull -- including all the stars of the Hyades Star Cluster and the nearby Pleiades high overhead. I also managed to capture the nearby bright star Capella, which is the major star of the Constellation Auriga The Charioteer.

Venus is inside Taurus and will be for the rest of July. The bright red star, Aldebaran -- the Eye of the Bull -- can be seen next to Venus and marks the arrow-shaped Hyades Star Cluster.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-01-2024 -- Planets & Morning Constellations Rising

Good morning, y'all!

Well folks, very early this morning -- at about 90 minutes before sunrise -- I went out into my backyard to capture a pair of really outstanding shots of the planets Jupiter, Mars, & Uranus as they appeared in the sky just above the trees.

In the first photo, I labeled the planets, as well as the brightest stars of the Constellations Taurus The Bull and Auriga The Charioteer, with the Waning Crescent Moon lower on the horizon. In the second photo, I outlined both constellations and all of the stars that made up both. They came out really clear in the shots. In addition to the stars of the Hyades Star Cluster, which makes up the head of Taurus The Bull, I captured the stars of the Pleiades Star Cluster just above it and marked the position of the planet Uranus.

Jupiter and Mars are both easy to spot as the two planets still remain close to the bright red giant star, Aldebaran and appear as a triangle of "stars" inside the Constellation Taurus. Both planets are moving ever closer to a conjunction on the mornings of Wednesday, August 14th and Thursday, August 15th later this month.

Uranus is slightly harder to spot unless you know precisely where to look. At the present time the position of the distant 7th planet of our Solar System can be found about two degrees, or so, to the left of the Pleiades Star Cluster. I marked the location in both photos since. If you have a good telescope, or a really good pair of binoculars, y'all should have no trouble spotting the faint planet about an hour before sunrise.

The brightest star of the Constellation Auriga is Capella, the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega.

Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, Capella is actually a quadruple star system -- two binary pairs, made up of two bright-yellow giant stars, (Capella Aa and Capella Ab) both of which are around 2.5 times larger than our own Sun, and two smaller and relatively cool red dwarf stars (Capella H and Capella L) which are around 10,000 astronomical units (AU) from the other pair. The system is relatively close to our Solar System, estimated to be about 42.9 light-years (or 13.2 parsecs) from the Sun.

Both the Constellations Auriga and Taurus are connected by the bright star, Elnath, which also happens to be the second-brightest star in both constellations. Elnath is a giant star about 134 light-years (or 41 parsecs) from the Sun. 

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my photos. I hope to have more soon, good weather permitting. Have a wonderful Dixie day, and be sure to keep looking at the skies, y'all.

Night Sky Photography -- 07-15-2024 -- Mars & Uranus Conjunction Before Sunrise!

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.

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.

Night Sky Photography -- 03-11/13/14-2024 -- The Moon & Jupiter Over Three Nights

Greetings & Salutations fellow stargazers!

Last week over the course of several evenings, I was able to photograph the progression of the Moon rising in the western sky to meet with, and pass by, the planet Jupiter an hour after sunset. These photos were taken over the course of the evenings of March 11th, 13th, and the 14th -- cloud cover prevented me from capturing any photos on the evening of the 12th.

The first photos taken on the evening of Monday, March 11th show a very young crescent moon just above the treetops with Jupiter high overhead, as well as a close-up shot of the beautiful crescent moon.

The next photos taken on the evening of Wednesday, March 13th show the meeting between our lovely Luna and Jupiter in the evening shy. I used the tree in my backyard to frame the shot, which came out beautifully if I do say so myself.

A close up shows the line of Jupiter's own largest moons: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa as faint but still visible dots.

Earlier the same evening before the sunset I was able to capture these outstanding photos of a pair of passenger jets flying past the crescent moon in the clear evening sky with the sunset reflecting off them. 

The last photos were taken on the evening of Thursday, March 14th showing Luna passed Jupiter and meeting the Pleiades Star Cluster in the evening sky. The wide shot shows the distance the Moon has traveled from just the evening before from Jupiter and its position just below the Seven Sisters and the nearby Hyades Star Cluster. The close-up of the Moon and the Pleiades shows all the major stars of the cluster beautifully.

I hope y'all enjoyed my photos as I enjoy presenting them to y'all. Have a wonderful day and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, ya hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 02-15/16-2024 -- The Moon & Uranus/The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic

Good evening fellow stargazers!

I'm thankful to report that here in my corner of South Carolina we've been blessed to have some clear skies overhead the last two evenings so that I can present to y'all some really good night sky photographs of our beautiful moon close to two beautiful heavenly bodies. 

The first photos were taken after sunset on the evening of Thursday, February 15th showing our lovely Luna meeting the distant giant planet, Uranus.

The first shot I took is the wide shot of the Moon -- just one day away from its First Quarter phase -- positioned between the giant planet, Jupiter, and the two open star clusters: The Hyades and The Pleiades (also known as the "Seven Sisters") that make up the Constellation Taurus The Bull. Uranus is positioned just next to the Moon in the night sky that evening. The second photo is a close up where y'all can faintly see the distant seventh planet of our Solar System.

 

Uranus may look small compared to Luna, but in actuality the blue-green gas giant planet is four times wider than our Earth and circles the Sun at a whopping 1.8 billion miles (or 2.9 billion kilometers) in its average orbit. It takes the light of the Sun about 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach Uranus.

At its present distance in our orbits around the Sun, Uranus is about 1.83 billion miles (or 2.94 billion km) away from Earth, which is just about 19.67 AUs.

The next set of photos I took were on the evening of Friday, February 16th when Luna -- now in her First Quarter Moon phase -- moved higher into the night sky and was positioned right next to the Pleiades in the sky inside The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic. This is the place in the sky dome where the Ecliptic (the orbital plain of the Earth around the Sun) passes between the Hyades and Pleiades with both the star clusters represent the "posts" of the virtual gate that makes up this asterism.

The first two photos are close-up shots with the first showing the details of the Moon in her First Quarter Phase, and the second is a wonderful capture showing Luna and the Seven Sisters meeting in the night sky.

The third is a wide shot of the major stars of the Constellations Orion The Hunter and Taurus The Bull showing Luna inside the Hyades and Pleiades "gates" -- note the positions of Uranus and Jupiter beneath the Moon. The final shot being a closer and more detailed shot of the Hyades and Pleiades with the Moon. All of which came out rather beautifully.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my photographic offerings for the evening. I'm hopefully that we will continue to be blessed with clear skies enough to get at least two more interesting celestial views before the month of February is out.

Night Sky Photography -- 10-17/18-2023 -- The Winter Triangle Stars & Constellations In The Early Morning

Greetings fellow stargazers!

As we move past the middle of October here in South Carolina, the Winter Circle & Winter Triangle Stars and their constellations begin to return in the early morning sky. 

Over the course of two mornings, Tuesday the 17th and Wednesday the 18th, about 45 minutes hour before sunrise I was able to capture some great shots of the brightest stars of the Winter Triangle constellations: Orion The Hunter, Canis Major, and Canis Minor.

On Tuesday the 17th -- just about 35 minutes, or so, before sunrise -- I captured a really great early morning shot of all the major stars of the Constellation Orion, the bright beautiful star, Sirius (Canis Major), Procyon (Canis Minor), as well as the red giant star, Aldebaran (Taurus The Bull), in my photograph.

On Wednesday the 18th I was able to capture some slightly earlier shots that captured the Winter Triangle stars, and all the major stars of their constellations wonderfully. The Winter Triangle connects Orion and his two hunting dogs in the sky dome.

My final photograph is a wide shot showing the major stars of these constellations, along with those of Taurus The Bull, as well as the two major star clusters: The Hyades -- the head of the Bull -- and the Pleiades.

These stars will continue to be early morning stars in autumn for at least the next month, or so, before becoming the prominent evening and nighttime stars of the winter months here in North America once again.

Night Sky Photography -- 10-03-2023 -- The Moon & The Pleiades

Late last night I captured some really outstanding shots of the Waning Gibbous Moon in conjunction with the Pleiades "Seven Sisters" Star Cluster in the eastern sky. The star cluster can be seen just above and to the left of our lovely Luna just outside the glare of the moonlight.

The wider shots also include the Hyades Star Cluster located in the Constellation Taurus The Bull and the constellation's two brightest stars, Aldebaran -- the Eye of the Bull -- and Elnath.

Jupiter can be seen as the brightest object in the eastern night sky at the moment. 

Night Sky Photography -- 01-03-2023 -- The Moon & Pleiades Star Cluster In Cloudy Western Sky

Good evening fellow stargazers!

For my first night sky photographic offerings of the 2023 year, I was able to capture some really great shots of our lovely moon along with all the major stars of the Pleiades Star Cluster "Seven Sisters" in the late night sky through the bare tree branches of my backyard through the partly cloudy sky overhead.

The first photo is truly a gorgeous shot. You can see the Pleiades to the left of Luna in the gap in the clouds just past the larger tree branch separating the two. The next two photos were taken about ten minutes later when the skies were clearer capturing the moon and the star cluster together and one showing the stars of the Seven Sisters shining brightly.

My final photo of the evening I took while there was still partial cloud cover but clearly shows both Luna and the Pleiades, along with the planet Mars and the bright red-giant star, Aldebaran.

Luna is currently passing through what is referred to as the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic asterism -- the space between the V-shaped Hyades Star Cluster and the Seven Sisters. Both star clusters are among the nearest ones to our Sun, with the nearest stars of the Hyades located about 153 light-years (or 47 parsecs) away and the Pleiades at a distance of about 444 light years (or 136 parsecs) away from the Sun.

Mars is still pretty bright in the night sky, though it will continue to dim in brightness over the next couple of months as it moves away from us in its orbit around the Sun following last month's opposition. Mars will remain near the Eye of Taurus for at least the rest of the winter months as the Red Planet begins the end of its retrograde motion in the night sky and starts turning back eastward on the late evening of  Thursday, January 12th and reentering the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

The moon is currently in its Waxing Gibbous phase headed towards the first Full Moon of 2023 on the evening of Friday, January 6th. On an interesting note, the January 2023 full moon (also known in North America as the Full Wolf Moon) is the first official full moon of winter, and will be present inside the Winter Circle asterism for the occasion right next to the twin stars: Castor and Pollux in the Constellation Gemini The Twins.

Well, I hope yall enjoyed my first night sky photos of the year 2023, more will be coming soon. Until next time have a good evening and y'all keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear?

Night Sky Photography -- 04-04-2022 -- Saturn & Mars Conjunction In The Morning/Luna & Pleiades In The Evening

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

Early this morning, I was able to capture a couple of great photos of the conjunction between the planets Saturn and Mars about an hour before sunrise.

The two planets can be seen with the bright planet, Venus about 90 minutes, or so before sunrise. Despite being millions of miles apart and Saturn being a far larger planet than little Mars, both appear to be about the same size in the early morning sky and about the width of the full moon apart.

The three planets will remain close to each other for the rest of the month of April, and will be joined by Jupiter lower towards the rising sun. By the middle of the month, around the 14th and 15th of April, the four planets will appear in a parade following the ecliptic in the early morning sky. This blogger will do his best to try and get a great shot of that event.

As morning made way to evening, I captured another beautiful shot of the Young Crescent Moon together in the sky with the Pleiades Star Cluster and the larger nearby Hyades Star Cluster in the Constellation Taurus The Bull in the western sky.

Located about 153 light years (47 parsecs) from the Sun, the Hyades is the nearest and one of the best-studied star clusters. From the perspective of observers on Earth, the brightest stars of the Hyades Cluster appears in the form of a V shape as the head of the bull along with the still-brighter Aldebaran, which is actually unrelated to the Hyades, as it is located much closer to Earth and appears along the same line of sight.

The Pleiades by contrast are about 444 light-years (136 parsecs) from the Sun and its brightest seven stars (also known as the Seven Sisters) are more tightly packed together in a small dipper.

Together the Hyades and the Pleiades both form another asterism referred to as the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic where all the planets of our Solar System and the moon travel across the night and morning sky, passing between these two star clusters which form the two posts of this virtual gate at the two sides of the ecliptic line.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my planetary and night sky offering for this evening. Please let me know what y'all think in the comments below, as well as any information I might have left out.

Until next time be sure to keep your eyes to the skies, y'all hear!