Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Dance of the planets (Part 3)
The clouds finally parted, and I was able to see the next stage in the lineup. Venus is next to Saturn, with Mercury just below (just about to go behind the roof). Out of shot (otherwise you couldn't see Saturn or Mercury with the image compression) is Mars just above these, and over on the other side of the sky was the Moon and Jupiter. All the Classic planets together, Yah!.The image is a bit lousy as the sky was quite light (click to enlarge, and you may still have to peer closely to pick up Saturn and Mercury). Even thought the planets, even Mercury, were quite easily visible to the unaided eye, the camera gets quite overwhelmed with background light this early.
So why didn't I wait a little longer and go down the beach to take images like the other nights? The Bettdeckererschnappenderweisle made her famous Pea and Ham soup! No way was I letting that get cold!
Tomorrow Saturn is still close to Venus, so you have another chance to see it, then Mercury joins up with Saturn, then Venus. Quite a show still in store!
Labels: astrophotography, Mars, Mercury, Observational Astronomy, Saturn, Venus
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 9:55 pm 
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