Night Sky Photography -- 06-10-2026 -- Venus & Jupiter Conjunction After Sunset

 

Good evening, fellow amateur stargazers!

This evening I captured a great shot of the planets Jupiter and Venus together in conjunction about 70 minutes after sunset in the western sky above the trees.

The two planets had actually been much closer together the previous evening, however cloud cover prevented me from getting any photos unfortunately. Still the two planets were still close together and will remain so for the rest of this week, so spotting them with the naked eye won't be too difficult on a clear evening.

Venus is the larger and brightest object in the early evening sky at the current distance of about 111 million miles (or 178 million kilometers) away from Earth. Jupiter, while much larger, is much farther away at the current distance of about 563 million miles (or 906 million kilometers) from Earth.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-01-2025 -- Venus and Jupiter In The Early Morning Sky

Hello fellow stargazers!

Early this Labor Day morning at about forty-five minutes before sunrise, I captured a couple of really good shots of the planets Venus and Jupiter just ahead of the rising sun in the eastern sky.

Venus can be seen through the trees shining brightly with Jupiter overhead above. Nearby are a couple of the brighter stars still visible: Procyon in the Constellation Canis Minor (the Lesser Dog) and Pollux in the Constellation Gemini The Twins.

A close-up shot of Jupiter shows all four of the giant gas planet's largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto -- all in a nearly straight line. At present Jupiter sits inside the Constellation Gemini near the star Wasat (Delta Geminorum).

Well, that's all I have for now, but I will have more planetary and night sky photography coming later this month. Until then have a wonderful Dixie day and a happy Labor Day, 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 -- 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 -- 10-05-2024 -- The Very Young Crescent Moon & Venus After Sunset

For my first night sky photographs for October 2024, I present to y'all two photos I took this evening of the Very Young Crescent Moon with the planet Venus in the evening sky about 40 minutes after sunset. Both photos came out very well in the cloudless sky at dusk. I used a tree in a nearby empty field in the foreground to line up the two heavily bodies nicely.

Venus is now in the evening sky following the earlier sunset in autumn here in South Carolina and appears as a very bright evening star. Its usually the first "star" to appear after sunset, so spotting it right now in the evening sky dome will be easy this month, even without Luna as a starting point.

The next time these two meet will be on the evening of Monday, November 4th, when the pair will appear to be even closer.

More night sky photography coming soon. Have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-08-2024 -- The Visible Planets With Partial Solar Eclipse

It was a big day here in North America this week with the April 8th Total Solar Eclipse arriving this afternoon, appearing overhead in a line across the continent from Mexico to Canada.

Map showing the line of totality during the April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse.
The Partial Solar Eclipse was visible throughout North America from Canada to Panama.

During a Solar Eclipse, the Moon crosses the path of the Sun casting its shadow on the surface of
the Earth.

During a Total Solar Eclipse, the deepest part of the Moon's shadow (the umbra) covers the narrow area of totality, while the lighter part of the Moon's shadow (the penumbra) covers the wider area where only a Partial Solar Eclipse can be seen.

Here in upstate South Carolina, those of us with the proper eye protection were only able to see about 75% of the totality, with the Moon's penumbra shadow casting down making the planets in our Solar System and some of the brightest stars visible.

On Monday, April 8th, I was able to capture one really beautiful image of all the visible planets of our Solar System between the Partial Solar Eclipse at its peak. It was a unique opportunity to see all of these planets in the daytime.

At present Venus is far too close to the Sun to be visible for the next few months, and Saturn and Mars are expected to pass each other on the mornings of Tuesday the 9th and Wednesday the 10th, but they are so low on the horizon before sunrise that its hard to catch them unless you live in an elevated place before the Sun blocks them out. Mercury can be seen low on the horizon just after sunset, but again you see a high place with no obstructions to really see it.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-22-2024 -- Venus & Mars Before Sunrise

Greetings fellow stargazers! 

I had to wake up a bit early -- about an hour, or so, before sunrise -- to capture these two really outstanding shots of our Earth's nearest planetary neighbors: Venus and Mars together just above the trees in the eastern sky.

Mars will continue to rise higher into the morning sky, but will still appear faint and only really be visible before sunrise for most of 2024. Venus will begin to move lower towards the sunrise in its orbit.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-07-2024 -- Mars Returns To The Early Morning Sky

Greetings & Salutations, fellow stargazers!

This morning I got up about an hour before sunrise and took a small drive to the tallest local point near my home which has a largely open and unobstructed view of the eastern horizon above the treeline, which happened to be in the center of my hometown of Chester, South Carolina.

I set up my tripod and was able to capture a couple of really good photos of the Moon and our own planet's two closest neighbors: Venus and Mars. The first shot I took at the top of the hill overlooking downtown Chester, and the second near the bottom using the power line pole and wires for the foreground. The three heavenly bodies appear in a roughly uneven triangle in the sky.

The planet Venus is, of course, the third-brightest object in the sky seen here from the surface of our Earth after the Sun and Luna (our Moon) and is usually most visible after sunset and before sunrise making it one of the first evening "stars" in the night sky, as well as the last of the morning "stars" -- depending on where Venus lies in relation to its orbit around the Sun compared to Earth.

At present, Venus is visible just two hours before sunrise here in the Northern Hemisphere. Its orbit is taking the planet lower in the sky dome towards the eastern horizon and the rising Sun in the mornings.

In contrast, Mars has been, until recently, on the other side of the Sun in relation to Earth, and thus invisible until about the beginning of this month in the glare of the sunrise. However, The Red Planet is slowly rising away from the Sun in the early morning hours.

As you can see in the photos I took, bright Venus is easily visible with the light of the Sun reflecting off the hot, hellish clouds that cover the planet. Cold and distant Mars, by contrast, is very dim since its farther away in its orbit from our vantage point here on Earth, just barely visible in the light of the coming sunrise less than 45 minutes later. 

As Venus sets and Mars rises, our two closest planetary neighbors will appear to move closer and meet in the early morning sky next week with their closest approach (or, conjunction) happening in two weeks on the morning of Wednesday, February 21st of this year.

Night Sky Photography -- 11-09-2023 -- The Crescent Moon & Venus & The Winter Circle Stars

Good evening and salutations, fellow amateur stargazers and night sky enthusiasts.

Here in North America, the month of November brings with it the return to the late night/early morning sky of the Winter Circle (Winter Hexagon) Constellations.

The following are the photos I took early in the morning of the brightest stars of the Constellations Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, and Taurus -- as well as all the bright stars of the great Winter Circle asterism.

Orion The Hunter can be seen overhead accompanied by his faithful dogs: Canis Major and Canis Minor once again chasing down their adversary, Taurus The Bull.

This heavenly struggle is easily spotted by locating the stars of the "Orion's Belt" asterism which (as I've noted in previous night sky posts) can help any novice stargazer locate the position of the Constellation Orion and how they point in a direct line between the bright stars, Sirius (The Dog Star) in Canis Major and the equally bright red giant star, Aldebaran (The Eye of the Bull) in Taurus.

The Winter Triangle asterism connects the Hunter with his Dogs with the three points of the Triangle being Sirius (the brightest star of Canis Major) and Procyon (the brightest star of Canis Minor) with the star Betelgeuse, the shoulder of Orion.

The vast Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) asterism encircles Orion the Hunter and can be spotted by finding the seven major stars: Procyon, Castor, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel, and Sirius.

As the autumn months here in North America give way towards the end of the calendar year and the coming winter season, the Winter Circle and its constellations will begin to appear in the evening skies. 

In addition, I was also able to capture these really good shots of the crescent moon and the bright planet Venus -- now a "morning star" -- in the eastern sky overhead.

Night Sky Photography -- 07-10-2022 -- Mars & Regulus Conjunction With Venus After Sunset

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This evening the skies were beautifully clear after several cloudy evenings due to the usual hit-and-run summer storms that happen in this part of South Carolina this time of year, as well as the lingering smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Tonight I was able to capture a couple of beautiful shots of our two closest planetary neighbors: Venus and Mars together in the evening sky an hour after sunset.

As you can see from my photos, Mars is in close conjunction with the bright star, Regulus, in the Constellation Leo The Lion, appearing about a full moon's length apart from our vantage point here on the surface of the Earth. In actuality, Regulus is a quadruple star system, the largest of which (Regulus A) lies approximately 79 light-years (or about 24.2 parsecs) from our Sun.

Both Venus and Mars are moving slightly farther apart in the night sky after appearing closely together on Saturday, July 1st -- which I was unfortunately unable to get due to cloud cover. The two inferior planets (inner planets of our Solar System) will continue to remain close for most of this month, though they are drifting apart in their orbits around the Sun in relation of our own Earth.

Night Sky Photography -- 06-12/13-2023 -- Venus & Mars with the Constellation Cancer & The Beehive Star Cluster

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

At the end of the previous month and the beginning of this month, the small red planet, Mars, traveled past the Beehive Star Cluster as it rises higher in the sky as seen here from the surface of the Earth in its larger orbit around the Sun.

Meanwhile, the bright planet Venus, in its own closer orbit of the Sun, has reached the Beehive Cluster and the Constellation Cancer the Crab stars this week on Monday, June 12th and Tuesday, June 13th respectively.

Both of our nearest planetary neighbors are moving higher towards the bright star, Regulus, and will move closer together over the course of the month of June; both Venus and Mars finally meeting in conjunction at the beginning of July.

As I've mentioned before, the Beehive Star Cluster (also known as M-44) is a faint open cluster of hundreds of stars located an estimated 577 light-years (or 176.9 parsecs) from our Sun. The cluster is located inside the faint zodiac Constellation Cancer The Crab.

The following are the photos I took of the planets Mars and Venus in the night sky with the faint Constellation Cancer with bright Venus buzzing by the Beehive.

When Venus and Mars reach conjunction on Sunday, July 2, 2023, they will appear about 5 degrees apart in the evening sky in the west. They will continue to move closer throughout the month of July.

Night Sky Photography -- 05/31/23 -- 06/01/23 -- Mars Buzzing The Beehive In Constellation Cancer The Crab & Venus Alligns With The Gemini Twins

 

Good evening fellow Stargazers!

Well, now we're getting into the summer months down here in my little corner of Dixie. That means much later evenings, fireflies, noisy Cicadas, and of course some interesting early summer night sky planetary photography for the month of June.

As the final day of May gave way to June, I was able to capture a some really outstanding photos of the both the planets Venus and Mars in the evening sky after sunset. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, our two nearest planetary neighbors are both traveling higher into the sky dome away from the setting late spring sun on their way to an early July conjunction as they both approach the bright star, Regulus, in the Constellation Leo The Lion. The faster orbit of Venus and the slower orbit of Mars will bring both "wandering stars" into a conjunction in the evening sky on the evening of Sunday, July 2nd of this year.

Over the course of three blessedly clear evening skies, I was able to capture some really cool evening photos of the two planets in the western sky about 45 minutes after sunset; as well as get a few outstanding shots of Mars traveling through the faint Constellation Cancer The Crab and the distant Beehive Star Custer (M44).

The Beehive Star Cluster is a faint open cluster of hundreds of stars located an estimated 577 light-years (or 176.9 parsecs) from our Sun.

Here are the photos I took of the two planets on the evening of Wednesday, March 31st, with Mars centered inside Cancer The Crab located between the Beehive and the binary star Tegmine (Zeta Cancri) -- also known as the "shell of the crab". You can also see Venus -- currently the brightest of the heavenly bodies in the western sky until the Moon appears later in the month -- lining up with the two "twin stars" Pollux and Castor of the Constellation Gemini The Twins.

In one of these shots, I was able to capture all of the major stars of the faint zodiac constellation -- this blogger's birth sign (fun fact) -- along with the approximate location of the Beehive Star Cluster, which isn't visible except in close-ups with higher exposure, which I captured much better in the close-up shots of Mars and the Beehive.

The next two shots I took over the course of the two nights of Thursday, June 1st and Friday, June 2nd when Mars began to move through the Beehive Star Cluster, the Red Planet surrounded by the small, faint points of light. By late Saturday, June 3rd, Mars will be above the Beehive; though it'll still be in the area of the Constellation Cancer a short while longer as it travels higher in the evening towards Regulus.

On Thursday, June 1st, Venus moved into a nearly perfect straight alignment with the Gemini Twins. Venus will also be moving higher towards the Constellation Cancer and will also buzz by the Beehive later this month on Monday, June 12th and Tuesday, June 13th as it races to catch up with Mars.

I hope y'all enjoyed my presentation and my photos. It was again my pleasure to share them with y'all. Hopefully we will be blessed with good clear skies this June down here in my little corner of Dixie so I can share more interesting night sky photography as we move closer to the summer equinox and the official start of the new season.

Until next time, keep your eyes to the night skies and y'all come back now, ya hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 05-24-2023 -- Venus & Mars After Sunset

Hello fellow amateur stargazers!

If you are blessed to have clear mid-spring skies this time of year, look towards the west about an hour after sunset and you will see our Earth's two closest planetary neighbors moving closer together in the sky at dusk as we move closer to the summer solstice.

As you can see from my photograph (taken on one of the rare cloudless evening skies this month here in South Carolina), both Venus and Mars can both be seen in and near the twin stars: Castor and Pullox -- the two brightest stars of the Constellation Gemini.

Because Venus -- the second planet in our Solar System -- is closer to the Sun, it has a much faster orbit. There are 225 of our Earth days that make up a yearly trip around the Sun for Venus. I say our Earth days because (fun fact) Venus has a very long day -- approximately 243 days for the hot planet to rotate on its axis in fact, making a day on Venus slightly longer than its actual year!

By contrast, Mars has a orbital period of 687 of our Earth day, and a day on Mars is about 24.7 of our hours here on Earth (closer to 25 hours) and takes the Red Planet about a little less than two of our Earth years to revolve around the Sun.

Venus is moving higher in the sky away from the Sun, while Mars is moving much slower but also higher in the sky.

In a little over a month, the orbits of both planets will have them meeting in the night sky in conjunction in the Constellation Leo The Lion on the evening of Saturday, July 1, 2023. The two wanderers will be about 3 degrees apart just above the point of the Summer Triangle and the bright star, Regulus.

Conjunctions between Venus and Mars usually happen once a year and both planets stay close together (at least from out point of view here on Earth) for about ten days to two weeks. After this year, the next Venus-Mars conjunction will take place on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

Night Sky Photography -- 05-02-2023 -- Venus, Mars & The Moon With Four Asterisms

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

This evening I have some really good shots of two of our closest planetary neighbors, Venus and Mars; along our lovely Waxing Gibbous Moon, with four distinct astronomical asterisms in the same evening sky after sunset.

My first photo was taken an hour after sunset looking to the western sky where the winter constellations are starting to move lower and lower in the night sky dome. You can see the bright planet, Venus, quite clearly in the evening sky close to the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

The faint red-colored Mars is also visible just inside the Constellation Gemini The Twins just beneath the two brightest stars: Pollux and Castor. Both planets are currently visible near the Winter Triangle asterism -- the three stars: Betelgeuse (Constellation Orion The Hunter), Sirius (Constellation Canis Major "The Greater Dog") and Procyon (Constellation Canis Minor "The Lesser Dog"). Find the Winter Triangle, and you'll find the two planets for the next month at least until Mars moves higher into the sky by the end of May and into June. Venus will also move higher and appear beneath the "twin stars" just about where Mars appears now in the photo by Wednesday, May 24th.

In my next photo I captured a wonderful close-up of our lovely Luna in her Waxing Gibbous phase higher in the sky near the eastern sky just days away from becoming the Full Flower Moon -- the name given to the May Full Moon in North America -- on Friday, May 5th.

 

 

Luna currently sits just inside the larger Spring Triangle asterism, but just outside of the smaller unilateral Spring Triangle and the Great Diamond of Virgo asterisms, which are currently rising higher in the night sky as we well into spring here in the Northern Hemisphere.

As y'all can see in my next two photos the borders of both versions of the Spring Triangle are highlighted near the Moon. The smaller, more unilateral Triangle consists of the stars: Arcturus (Constellation Bootes The Herdsman), Spica (Constellation Virgo The Maiden), and Denebola (Constellation Leo The Lion). The larger Triangle includes Arcturus and Spica with the bright star Regulus, the "Heart of the Lion".

I couldn't quite capture Spica in frame with the larger Spring Triangle, although I captured it perfectly in the first photo showing the unilateral Spring Triangle and highlighted its location along with the other stars and Luna in both photos.

 

My final photo shows the four stars of the Great Diamond of Virgo with the Moon just outside of its boundaries. The Great Diamond consists of the three stars of the unilateral Spring Triangle, with the fourth star, Cor Caroli (Constellation Canes Venatichi "The Hunting Dogs") making up the fourth point in the Diamond. 

 

I hope that y'all enjoyed my night sky and planetary photography for the evening. Until the next time, have a good evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear.

Night Sky Photography -- 04-30-2023 -- Venus & Mars With Major Evening Stars & Constellations

Good evening my fellow stargazers!

Closing out the month of April, I was blessed to have some actual clear skies for this evening after rain and cloudy conditions for most of the last week.

This evening I was about to capture a couple of really beautiful shots of the bright planet Venus and the small red planet, Mars, along with four of the major evening star constellations over 50 minutes after sunset in the western sky. 

Venus and Mars are the second and fourth planets in our Solar System respectively, with our own good Earth in the orbit between them around the Sun.

As you can see from my first photograph, both planets appear in the western sky almost an hour after sunset with several bright stars in the western sky belonging to the winter constellations: Orion The Hunter, Canis Minor, Gemini The Twins, and Auriga The Charioteer.

Sirius, the Dog Star, is part of a fifth constellation, Canis Major which is largely obscured from view by the trees. While Venus is currently the brightest "wandering star" (planet) in the western sky, Sirius is actually the brightest of the evening stars in the night sky seen from the surface of the Earth.

In my second photo, I outlined the star constellations themselves in their current relations to the position of the planets.

Mars is just inside of the Constellation Gemini The Twins and will remain in close proximity to them for the next month at least. As it moves further and further away in its wider orbit around the Sun, Mars will become dimmer and, unless you know where to look, you might have a hard time finding it.

Venus meanwhile is very bright and easy to spot towards the sunset in the evenings. It will be the brightest object to appear in the evening sky other than our lovely Moon.

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.