Venus & Jupiter
Tonight the two brightest planets passed by each other, just half a degree apart (from our perspective on Earth, of course).
Immediately after sunset, at an elevation of about 20º, they were still difficult to spot and the camera was needed to pick them out – but as the pair dropped hurriedly towards my horizon and the sky darkened, to the naked eye they unconditionally dominated the Western sky, so emphatically bright and dazzlingly gorgeous, standing out like diamonds in a sky which still retained remnants of its red background.
The visual sight became so impressive that I’m not sure that photographs can really do the spectacle any justice.
Venus, the brightest is lower right of the pair, Jupiter to its upper left.
Early on, the eye could not see the two planets but even at 70mm focal length the camera picked them out – albeit only showing them as a pair of bright specks on a golden background (click to enlarge):
As the light quickly faded – and at a narrower field of view – they became more visible in the camera (clickety click):
At 200mm and under a much darkened sky, they stood out brilliantly – as the gloomy black clouds suddenly materialised out of nothing, racing in and quickly closing the show down for good . . .
| 🔹Canon 60D DSLR camera on tripod. 🔹Tamron 70-200mm zoom lens. 🔹Images copyright R.Powell. 🔹Images taken 2nd March 2023. |
Cosmic Focus 
Clouds and rain here tonight and tomorrow. Clouds yesterday. And so it goes.
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That’s no good. It really was a beautiful sight – and will be for a couple of evenings more.
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I’m glad you had the opportunity to see this close pairing before those clouds appeared. I watched anxiously as a similar cloud bank approached my location. The gods looked favorably on us.
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I look forward to seeing your images.
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Great images! I missed it on day zero but was able to observe on day +1.
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Thanks very much, Parag. The weather can be so frustrating sometimes!
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