Conjunction month

As we orbit around the Sun, and the other planets with us, there come instances where two planets are lined up in the solar system in such a way that, from our viewing perspective on Earth, they both appear very close to one another in our sky. Such an alignment is called a planetary conjunction, and these sights can be quite charming. In one of my posts last year, I included a couple images taken at the SUNY Oneonta Observatory of a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.

Conjunctions of three planets are a bit more rare, and seeing them can be downright exciting. Okay, maybe it's just me! Jupiter has been gradually moving across the night sky over the past months and is now fading into the sunset with each passing night. However, seemingly all of a sudden, at the end of May Venus and Mercury popped up out of the sunset to join it. May 26th marked the date of their closest approach to one another in our sky - their closest conjunction.

On that night, my wife and I were driving along the freeway in western New York state. It was a clear night and I had our Canon Rebel T3i DSLR camera + tripod, hoping to catch a shot. We stopped at a rest stop after sunset, but the view was not great:

We continued on our way, and I was happy to have gotten a series of images, with the best one shown above, and I was pleased to have been able to see it. However, the best was yet to come. The hills and ridges that obscured the view of these three planets broke open and we were suddenly driving along a flat stretch of highway. Seeing this, Ashley quickly pulled over and I set up my tripod on the side of the freeway. In between passing cars (who were no doubt wondering what was going on), I snapped a series of shots of the conjunction once again:

This experience was thrilling! I had plenty of time to make sure the camera was focused - a nontrivial task, I'm learning - and got a nice sequence of images of these three planets at their closest approach - just three degrees apart!

While this apparition is gradually dispersing, and Jupiter is now passing out of sight, the two inferior planets are not finished with their tango just yet. Over the next few weeks, these two planets will turn back for another pass at each other as Mercury moves back toward the Sun. The pair will even be joined by a thin crescent Moon on June 10.

(Images produced with Stellarium)

If you have a clear view of the northwestern horizon (no trees, hills, mountains, etc.), keep your eyes peeled after sunset each day. From Oneonta, this is a tough thing to view unless you are fairly high up.

Happy viewing!