This morning Mercury showed up in the twilight colors few degrees above a 4% slender crescent Moon “close” to the Basilica of Superga.
Later on I moved a bit further from the Basilica to capture one of the first sunrises of this winter:
Tag Archives: conjunction
Moon and Jupiter over the Romanesque church
This evening the Moon and Jupiter were were shining just few degrees apart. While I was taking the picture I wondered how many times they met over the sky of the Romanesque church of San Secondo of Cortazzone (40 km from Turin, Italy) since it was built back in the 11th century!
Technical details: Canon Eos 5D Mark II with EF 24-105mm lens set @ 24mm; Exp: 2 seconds; F/6; ISO: 6.3
Like this:
Moon and Mars summertime conjunction
These two images show the conjunction between the crescent Moon and planet Mars, taken before the sunrise of August 25, 2011 over the Istia beach of Isola d’Elba, the island west of Tuscany (Italy). The Moon, reflecting its light over the calm sea, looks overexposed in order to better show the red planet and the winter constellations (Gemini and Orion) rising over the eastern horizon.
And then..let’s wait for the sunsrise…..
The road to the Moon and Jupiter
I was driving home after a nice observing session when the crescent Moon and Jupiter appeared beaming close together just in front of the road. I could not help stopping the car and digitally capture that beautiful scene! - featured as LPOD on 3 July 2011 -
Technical details:Canon Eos 1000D; 8-16 mm Sigma lens set @ 8mm; Exp: 2.5 sec (the Moon looks overexposed in order to better show Jupiter and the stars); F/5; ISO: 1600
Saturn and Porrima like a double star
During these nights Saturn is closing to Porrima (in the constellation of Virgo) and the pair, separated by just 15′, looks like a wide double star (Saturn will be just a bit brighter and should look yellow compared to Spica’s blue). I took the picture above on May 28th during the Skylive starparty in Andrate.
Venus, Mercury and Mars in the predawn twilight
The planet show goes on: this morning I caught the close encounter between Venus, Mercury and Mars (it appeared very dim among the clouds)
My first photo of the planet gathering: Venus and Jupiter less than 1° apart
This morning the sight of the predawn rendezvous Jupiter and Venus, was really great. The two brightest planets were less than one degree apart in the twilight colored sky above the Langhe region (some 60 kilometers from Turin, Italy). Unfortunately, Mercury and Mars were not visible as to dim and (probably) covered by the low clouds.
Technical details: Canon Eos 1000d; Exp: 2 sec; F/5.6; ISO 400
The Moon meets Venus over the Langhe
This morning, a couple of hours before dawn, I moved to La Morra, a village some 50 kms from Turin with a superb view over the Langhe (the area in the Northwest of Italy wordl-wide famous for its wine).
The goal of my early wake was to catch the conjunction between a waning crescent Moon and the blazing planet Venus (the morning star) and the show did not disappointed me: the pair looked awesome in the sky painted by the twiligh colors!
Othe pictures of this session are here:
Young Moon and Jupiter in the twilight
This evening I moved to a terrace with a nice view of the Alps and Turin in order to capture the conjunction between a young Moon (less than two days old) and Jupiter. The celestial pair was shining above the twilight colors of the western horizon: really a lovely sight!
In this close-up view the Moon shows a beautiful earthshineand zooming on Jupiter you can spot three of its Galilean Moons:
Image featured on EarthSky
HAPPY 2011 !!!
HAPPY 2011 with a compilation of my recent images 
FELICE 2011 con una compilation di mie astrofoto
