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 -- 07-20-2025 -- Luna Occultation Of The Pleiades Star Cluster

Early this morning, about an hour before sunrise here in South Carolina, I set up my camera and tripod and captured these outstanding shots of the Waning Crescent Moon with Venus rising in the eastern sky just 45 minutes ahead of the Sun.

The first photo is a really beautiful shot of Luna overhead with bright, beautiful Venus between the branches of the trees. Venus is currently inside the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

The planet Uranus is also currently close to Luna in the moon's orbit as seen from here on the Earth. Uranus is too far away to be visible in the shot -- about 1.86 billion miles (or 3 billion kilometers, or 19 astronomical units (AU) away -- but I labeled the current location of the 7th planet of our Solar System where it could be seen with a good telescope.

When I downloaded the photos to edit and label them, I noticed that I'd also captured the bright star Aldebaran -- the Eye of the Bull -- clearly visible through the leaves of the trees. In my second photo I captured a close-up of Venus and saw that Aldebaran was visible in that one as well.

The main event, the reason that I was up so early, was to capture the moon as it passed in front of the Pleiades Star Cluster (or "Seven Sisters") in its orbit around the Earth. I perfectly captured the moment when Luna was almost dead center in its occulation with the Seven Sisters catching all of the major stars of the cluster, except for Maia which is hidden by the moon. 

Finally, this morning at around 10 a.m. EDT Luna reached perigee -- the moon's closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit -- at approximately 228,690 miles (or 368,041 km) away.

Tomorrow at about the same time, Luna will move lower towards the east and the sunrise between Venus and Aldebaran in the morning sky. If clear skies permit I will try and capture a good photo of that celestial event as well. Till then keep your eyes to the skies, y'all!

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 -- 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 -- 11-19-2023 -- Jupiter, Uranus, & The Pleiades Rising In The East

This afternoon, I took an outstanding photo about 40 minutes before sunset of the First Quarter Moon in the late afternoon skies between the branches of the now leafless tree in my backyard.

Later the same evening I captured two more shots. The first was the large superior planet, Saturn, near the Moon overhead between the tree and the side of my house. The second being a much more breathtaking shot of the planets Jupiter and distant Uranus (just barely visible) along with the bright stars of the Pleiades Star Cluster (Seven Sisters) just above the treetops rising in the east.

Uranus will remain between the "Seven Sisters" and Jupiter for pretty much the remainder of the year, so spotting it with a pair of good binoculars, or a telescope should not be hard for those of us living in North America and with reasonably good night sky conditions.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-29-2023 -- The Full Super Harvest Moon & The Outer Planets

Good morning fellow Stargazers!

Early this morning I was awake to capture some great shots of four of the largest outer planets in our Solar System in the night sky dome with the final Supermoon of 2023.

The first Full Moon after the fall equinox is most famously called the Harvest Moon in North America. Because its also the last of four Supermoons of the year, its also the Full Super Harvest Moon. The last Supermoon is roughly around 224,658 miles (or 361,552 km) from Earth and appears about 5% bigger and about 13% brighter than the average full moon.

The Harvest Moon of 2023 sits between the planets Uranus and Jupiter to the east, and Neptune and Saturn to the west. Jupiter and Saturn are easy to spot in the clear skies, but Uranus and Neptune -- which are close to Jupiter and Luna respectively -- I highlighted when I labeled my photos.

I hope y'all enjoyed my final night sky and planetary photos of the month of September and the first ones of the fall season here in North America respectively. Looking forward to next month and my favorite holiday of the year.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-09-2023 -- Jupiter & Uranus With Orion & Taurus Star Clusters

Salutations fellow stargazers!

Now that September is here, with the fall equinox only a few weeks away, the winter constellations are rising very early in the morning -- or really late at night depending on your perspective.

This time I was up very early, but the night time skies overhead here in my part of South Carolina were mostly clear, though storms were expected before sunrise.

Nevertheless, I was able to capture three really good photographs of two of the most well known of the constellations: Orion The Hunter and Taurus The Bull with the planets Jupiter and Uranus close by.

The first two photos are the wide shots showing the major stars of these constellations with bright Jupiter just above them. Uranus is too far away in these shots to see, so I labeled the distant outer planet's location with a star in its position between Jupiter and the Pleiades Star Cluster.

My third, and final photo, is the close-up Jupiter and Uranus (still just barely visible) with the Pleiades and the Hyades Star Cluster located in the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

At its present distance Uranus, the seventh planet in our Solar System, is approximately 1.78 billion miles (or 2.864 billion kilometers -- or 159.25 light-minutes) from our Earth. Jupiter is much closer at 401.33 million miles (or 645.87 million kilometers -- or 35.56 light-minutes) from us here on Earth.

Night Sky Photography -- 03-29/30-2023 -- Venus & Uranus An Hour After Sunset

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Well, I can't think of any better way to end this month out than with some photographs that I was able to take over the course of two days about an hour after sunset showing the bright planet Venus in conjunction with the dim gas giant planet Uranus in the western sky dome. I was truly blessed with cloudless skies on both nights in order to bring y'all this night sky photographic offering.

I took two photos each evening of the two planets. One a wide shot as it appears in the western sky, and the other a close-up of the two planets together. As you can see, Uranus was just above and to the left of Venus on Wednesday the 29th, and the next evening on Thursday the 30th, Venus had moved just above and to the right of Uranus.

The planet Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after our own Moon and the second planet in our Solar System is nearly as big around as our Earth at about 7,520 miles (or 12,104 kilometers) across, compared to our planet which is about 7,926 miles (or 12,756 kilometers) wide. Venus is about 67 million miles (or 180 million km) from the Sun -- roughly 0.7 astronomical units (AUs). Due to its proximity to the Sun, it only takes Venus approximately 225 of our Earth days to circle our star.

Though it appears much smaller and very much dimmer to the naked eye, the gas giant planet Uranus -- the seventh planet in our Solar System -- is actually much bigger with a radius of 15,759.2 miles (or 25,362 kilometers), making Uranus about four times wider than our Earth. Uranus is much farther away from the Sun with an average distance of 1.8 billion miles (or 2.9 billion kilometers) making Uranus about 19.8 AUs away from the Sun. Because of its greater distance, Uranus takes about 84 Earth years to travel once around the sun.

I hope y'all enjoyed my planetary photographs and as always have a wonderful Dixie Day and be sure to keep your eyes to the evening skies, y'all hear.

Night Sky Photography -- 11-08-2022 -- Uranus Near Opposition During Full Beaver Blood Moon

Good morning, fellow stargazers!

Late last night and very early this morning, with blessedly clear skies, I was able to capture some really outstanding photos of the November Full Moon and the distant planet Uranus both before and during the last full Lunar Eclipse visible in North America until March 23-24, 2024.

As many of y'all might recall from my previous night sky blog post in May during the Full Flower Blood Moon of 2022, I explained in detail about how a Lunar Eclipse happened when our lovely Luna travels inside the Earth's shadow between our planet and the Sun.

There are two parts to the Earth's shadow: the penumbra (the lighter part) and the umbra (the darker part).

This Lunar Eclipse took place during the November Full Moon in the early morning hours of Tuesday, November 8, 2022. The November Full Moon is known as the Full Beaver Moon in the Northern Hemisphere, making this the Full Beaver Blood Moon.

The moon reached full total eclipse inside the Earth's umbra shadow at about 5:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and lasted about 85 minutes. Here in South Carolina, the full totality of the Lunar Eclipse occurred about an hour before moonset in the west.

The overall Lunar Eclipse took about 5 hours and 53 minutes in total.

The following are photos I took of the Full Beaver Blood Moon between 5:18 a.m. and 5:35 a.m. EST.

The gas giant planet, Uranus, seventh planet of our Solar System, is just barely visible at full magnification about 2 degrees above and to the left of Luna. As you can see in both photos, Uranus appears as a barely visible 5.6 magnitude star alongside the Full Beaver Blood Moon both before and during the Lunar Eclipse.

Uranus appears more visible with Luna in the Earth's shadow blocking out the moonlight, although even then spotting the planet would require the aid of a good camera lens, or pair of binoculars.

Orbiting at 1.8 billion miles (or 2.9 billion kilometers) from the Sun at its closest and 1.89 billion miles (or 3 billion km) away at its farthest, Uranus takes about 84 Earth years to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Right now Uranus is at its opposition -- its closest approach to Earth in its orbit around the Sun -- at about 1.6 billion miles (or 2.6 billion km) distance, or about 155 light-minutes from Earth.

Opposition is actually one of the best time of year to visibly see our Solar System's outer planets. From now until Thursday, December 1, 2022, Uranus will be at its brightest and can be seen just to the east of the Pleiades Star Cluster. Tonight (November 8-9th) the Waning Gibbous Moon will lie between both in the sky dome.

The planet will remain visible in the evening sky through March of 2023, although after this month it will begin to dim just a little so you have to know exactly where to look. Here's a link to a really good sight to help y'all with that. 

Night Sky Photography -- 10-12-2022 -- Uranus Near Occultation Of Luna

Good morning, fellow stargazers!

Well folks, last night I was concerned about the mostly cloudy skies that we'd had down here in my corner of South Carolina all day, and being unable to capture a decent photo of the near occultation of the distant planet Uranus with our lovely Luna in the late night sky.

An occultation occurs when a Solar System body passes in front of a more distant night sky object (such as a star or another solar system body), partially or totally hiding the more distant object and momentarily blocking its light. Occultations can be seen only at the right time and from a limited part of the Earth.

Unfortunately, Uranus would not actually pass behind the Moon from my little corner of Dixie, or the eastern part of the United States. However, the occultation was easily visible in most parts of the western U.S. and most of western and central Canada in the Northern Hemisphere. Here it passed just below Luna closely just beneath the glow of the Moon.

I captured the distant planet Uranus just beneath the bottom of the Moon with my trusty Sony DSC-H200 digital camera at maximum zoom on a 35X Optical Zoom lens using the Manual Exposure setting to capture Uranus and the surface features of the now Waning Gibbous Moon. You can see the small, barely visible dot labeled in the photo, as well as the outstanding features of the lunar surface.

The result was an absolutely beautiful shot of the distant giant planet just below the lovely face of the Man On The Moon.

Don't let the apparent small size of Uranus as seen from here on the surface of the Earth fool y'all. With a average radius of 15,760 miles (or 25,362 kilometers), Uranus is about 4 times wider than our Earth and the third largest planet in our Solar System after Jupiter and Saturn.

In addition, being the seventh planet in the Solar System, Uranus has an average distance of 1.8 billion miles (or 2.9 billion kilometers), Uranus is about 19 astronomical units (AUs) away from the Sun compared to our planet's own 93 million miles. 

At present the moon is approximately 238,855 miles from the Earth and Uranus is about 1.74 billion miles from the Earth.

Graphic showing the size comparison between the Earth, our Moon
and the planet Uranus.

Its possible to spot Uranus with the naked eye on Earth, though it would appear as a very dim dot that would be very easily missed unless you knew exactly where to look for it. The best bet for an amateur astronomer is the use of a telescope, a pair of binoculars, or a really good camera lens.

Well once again I hope y'all enjoyed my photo, this one was a pure joy to capture and I am thankful for the break in the mostly cloudy sky to get the shot perfectly.

Have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 08-01-2022 -- Mars & Uranus Close Conjunction

Good morning fellow stargazers!

Very early this morning -- or very last last night, depending on how y'all look at it -- after a couple of evenings of mostly cloudy skies, I was fortunate to capture a very close conjunction of the planets Mars and Uranus.

The first shot between the branches of the tree is the Red Planet, our closest planetary neighbor, with a very small, barely visible dot about one-degree to the left. That little faded dot is the elusive 7th planet of our solar system, Uranus. I only lightly highlighted Uranus in the first photo, but in the second close-up photo, you can just see the 5.8 magnitude distant planet just to the left of 0.2 magnitude bright Mars. 

 

Without a good lens, or pair or binoculars, spotting Uranus with the naked eye along is next to impossible unless you know exactly where to look. In this case we have Mars as an excellent starting point as the two planets will be close together for the next few nights.

Of course, by "close together" I'm only referring to how we view the two planets from here on the surface of the Earth. In reality, both Mars and Uranus are over 1.6 billion miles (or about 17.7 AU) apart at the moment in respect to their distance from the Sun.

Also, despite being more distant from our world, Uranus is actually much larger than either Earth, or Mars. With a diameter of 31,510 miles (or 50,723 kilometers), Uranus is four times larger than the Earth and the third largest planet in the Solar System. By contrast, Mars is much smaller at 4,212 miles (or 6.779 km) in diameter.

Uranus is also a ringed world like Saturn, although seeing these rings from Earth, even with a good telescope, is next to impossible. These rings were discovered by Cornell University astronomers James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink on Thursday, March 10, 1977, although German astronomer William Herschel had also reportedly observed what he suspected were the rings in 1789. The rings were later photographed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its historic flyby on Friday, January 24, 1986.

In addition to its thin rings, Uranus has 15 known small moons orbiting the planet -- the largest of these is Titania, the eighth-largest moon in the Solar System at 891 miles (or 1,578 km) in diameter.

If you want to see Uranus (and please keep your minds out of the gutter folks, LOL!) the planet will start to move just above and past Mars in the early morning sky in the Northern Hemisphere over the next few days; but be advised you need a really got set of eyes and a good camera lens, telescope, or binoculars if you want to spot it.

Thanks again and I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and presentation. As always have a wonderful Dixie Day and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

Photo taken by the Voyager 2 space probe of Uranus and its
rings during its flyby of the planet on January 24, 1986.