Mercury, Saturn, and the Moon
Taken by Dick Locke on December 1, 2013 @
Conroe, Texas, USA
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7000 Exposure Time: 5/1 Aperture: f/4.8 ISO: 800 Date Taken: 2013:12:01 07:46:05 |
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Details:
Peek-a-boo Mercury, Moon, and Saturn
The crescent Moon and earthshine are easy to see, while Saturn is the bright object above in the clouds. Mercury is a bit harder to see; it's showing through a small slit below and left, right above the treetops.
Story & details: I wasn't happy to see clouds after getting up at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday 12/1 to shoot this conjunction. I checked the weather, which noted conditions in my area were "overcast." It did look like things might be somewhat clear to the east and I decided to give it a try. I was able to focus on a star peeking through the clouds. I shot a few manual exposures, then set the camera to shoot frames every 10 seconds while monitoring and tweaking the exposure. I went for about 45 minutes. Despite all the clouds, I was able to get 8 frames with all three objects showing (out of over 200 shots). Image above used the Nikon D7000 and VR 18-200 lens at f4.8 and 50mm, 5s at ISO 800 at 6:10 a.m. 21-Nu Librae is just above the Moon while Zubenesch (27-Beta Librae) is over to the left. Scroll down to see more.
Photographer's website:
http://www.dl-digital.com/astrophoto/P2-Astro/2013Conjunctions.htm
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