Triple conjunctions in the sky

Although I could not enjoy the Perseid meteor shower of this year due to heavy cloudiness and rain, by the end of the month the skies cleared up enough to see the spectacular sight of two triple conjunctions in the sky.

Canon EOS Rebel T5, 18-55mm lens. F/16, ¼ sec, ISO 800. Edited in Photoshop CS6

The first trio made by the planets Mercury (a tiny reddish dot at the left), Jupiter and Venus only stayed few days in the skies. One of those days, the 23th of August (20+15 hrs LT) I had a couple of minutes to get a shot of the event. Venus, the brightest in the sky was almost to set behind a mountain and I could not see Mercury with my eyes. Anyways, I tried a few shots and finally I got the best of it catching the three of the planets in the same picture. The planets seemed a bit blurry in the original picture so I edited it with Adobe Photoshop. 

F/32, 8 secs, ISO 800. 20+23 hrs

The second conjunction involves two planets (Mars and Saturn) and the red supergiant star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion. This conjunction won’t be exclusive of August skies but it will keep going around on September. The planets will continue playing in Scorpius backyard as the nights go on and we could witness Mars apparent retrograde motion by comparing its location night by night with the stars around it.

In the picture from top to bottom, Saturn, Mars and Antares. If the pictures does look too dark on your screen, try to darken the room.





Enjoy the sky!!!

LG