Stars and Planets

Recently Mars and Uranus were "close" in the sky and I managed to get a shot.  It is great when a planet as easy to find as Mars, can act as a "landmark" to find another.

The other pair of photos is of the bright star Aldebaran with its accompanying star cluster called The Hyades.  I have identified the brightest stars of the Hyades with the letter "H".

More astronomical sights

After having managed to photograph Venus and The Pleiades recently, I thought I would post a few more night sky images.

(Please note that you can enlarge a photograph by clicking on it).

In late March the planet Venus could be seen above the beautiful crescent Moon as shown below.

Another exciting event was the conjunction of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.  These planets aligned in mid-April and I took the following photograph on April 16 around 4:50 a.m.  I do not usually get up so early but I figured this was worth it!

And finally, this was the biggest surprise for me! When I directly focused on Jupiter, I was astonished to find that its largest moons were visible and clearly identifiable as distinct bodies around the planet.