366 Days of 2012, Day 87 - Jupiter Moon Venus

I heard a rumour this morning of a rare conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Well 8pm came and went and all I could see to the west was a cloudy sky. I was dismayed that I'd missed out on all the fun. With the hindsight of similar cloudy evenings where patience won out and a little bit of 'you never know...', I chose to set up my camera anyway.

As if by magic the clouds parted in just the right spot and there they were, all three of them: Jupiter to the lower far left, the moon near the middle and Venus off to the upper far right.

A few locals intrigued by my antics enquired as to what was in the sky. One particularly enthusiastic youth was so interested that he decided to light up me and my camera with his car high-beam headlights just to get a better look!

The clearing in the clouds lasted only a few minutes so I only got a few shots before Jupiter, Venus and the moon danced off behind the clouds again.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 87 - Jupiter Moon Venus'. 5 secs at 140mm f/8.0, ISO 800