The Moon and Venus

Tonight's image of the Moon and Venus.

Our Moon and Jupiter's Moons

This is a lovely photo taken last night of our cresent Moon with the Earthshine and Jupiter with some of it's Moons. (Click photo to enlarge)

There are some amazing sights in the sky with the constant dance between Jupiter, Venus and the Moon. Last night and tonight is beautiful to see!

The photos are taken with my Canon Eos 350d and 200mm zoom lens

Here you can see the whole of last night's picture with Venus at the top.

Venus and Mars

Had a lovely night in the garden last night. Venus was beautiful, Jupiter quite
low down. Mars high up.Took these images with my Skywatcher 80ED Pro and
Philips Toucam Pro II. These are 2000 frames at 10 fps, stacked in Registax.
Mars was quite difficult as it is small compared with Venus in the camera, but
you can see the Polar regions. Although the sky was clear, it was also hazy, so Orion and some of the objects low down were sinking into the haze.

The clarity of Venus is stunning with it's Moon like shape.

Venus and Jupiter in harmony

A beautiful sight last night of the conjunction with Venus and Jupiter at their closest point together in the West. I can't remember ever seeing this before with such bright objects in the sky together. These two photos are taken from my back garden in England.

At the about same time, this lovely photo was taken by Birgitta in Sweden from outside her apartment building near to Stockholm.

Royal Astronomical Society spokesman Robert
Massey said:'Although conjunctions are not that rare, the interest in this one
is a result of how spectacular it is.
'Both planets are very bright in the night
sky. If you know where to look, you can even see Venus in the day. The two being
so close together will be beautiful. Last night they looked like two
beacons.
'It is also interesting for people because it
just happens to be something which you can see for yourself. In the northern
hemisphere we should look for them in the south west this evening. The pair will
appear to move to the west over the course of the night.
'While the pair will drift apart after a
couple of days, Jupiter will be visible for at least another two
weeks.

'Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2113888/Venus-Jupiter-pass-close-encounter-UK-skies-2-nights.html#ixzz1p8KlwC6T

Pleiades and Orion

Had a good night in the garden earlier this week. Wonderful sight of a Cresent Moon, Venus and Jupiter all together in a line. I set up my telescope with the Skywatcher 80ED Pro and Canon 350d to try to capture Orion and Pleiades. It was very clear and no clouds at all, my only problem was the battery on the Canon 350d which doesn't seem to hold it's charge for long now, especially when it is cold outside.

Pleiades with some nebulosity showing looks amazing. Only about 30 subs at 30 seconds each.

Orion shows some detail without burning out the core. I like this image even though I didn't quite get the focus right.