Conjunctions and Occultations - It's been a busy month!

    It has!

2026-06-09 

The Close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, plus Mercury.

    Starting on the third of June, I began taking snapshots of Venus and Jupiter with my mobile phone as they drew closer in the evening skies. For the most part the weather was warm and the western heavens relatively free of clouds, but then on the sixth, it started to cool, and with the increase threat of cloud cover building or fog coming inland. By the eighth, it looked pretty dire for the ninth being clear. The blanket of fog had all but blotted out the skies as far as the eye could see.

    Thankfully, the warmer and cloudless weather returned for the night of the main event, and stayed that way til the fourteenth. Below is the photo from the ninth when the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was at its closest. The planet Mercury is also visible. Low in the WSW, you can spot it just above the rooftop and left of the tree to the right of the frame. It lies in an almost vertical line directly below the star Castor.

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

      However, it took up to the twenty first of the month (the Summer Solstice) to compile and reposition the photos into the following video.

2026-06-16 

The Conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, and Mercury

    A week later, the waxing crescent moon decided to join the line of three planets, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury appearing somewhat equidistant from each other along the ecliptic.

Wednesday, June 16, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

2026-06-17 

The Occultation of Venus

    Earlier today, the occultation of the planet Venus as the Moon passed in front of it.

    Here in Fairfield, Venus disappeared from view shortly after 11:33:36 AM PDT and didn't emerge from behind the Moon until an hour and twelve minutes later, at 12:45:22 PM PDT.

    My apologizes for the "hair in the gate", in the first half of the video, which due to the brightness of the day as compared to the brightness of the viewfinder display, made the lint nigh impossible to spot. I got rid of it for the second shot, but now had no pin point on which to focus, the moon being too indistinct, which is why Venus is slightly out of focus coming out from behind the lunar limb.

    I'm just happy I was able to capture the daylight event.

 

 2026-06-19 

Venus and the Praesepe

    Tonight, the planet paid a call on the Praesepe, also known as the Beehive Cluster, or designated as M44, NGC 2632, Cr 189.

Friday, June 19, 2026 9:45 PM PDT, Fairfield, California

    -FIN-

    ;-) 

 

Conjunction of the Third Kind

Celebrating the successful camera capture of two planetary bodies!
Oh, and photographing Venus and Jupiter's conjunction as well...

Tonight's Conjunction

Venus, Mars, and the Moon.

Oakland Museum of California

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

From my Facebook page:
Goodness, I'm more than a week late in posting this. It's June 8th and Birdie Roy is already across the pond. Well anyway, she and I had a lot of fun at the Oakland Museum of California a week ago last Friday, May 31st, 2013 which is when and where I shall place it on my Facebook timeline.

The occasion: Friday Nights @ OMCA, the reopening of their Gallery of California Natural Sciences, and the second screening of the Great Wall of Oakland's Internet Cat Video Festival.

This Evening's Planetary Dance: Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury

Clockwise from the brightest to the dimmest: Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. High to the right of  Mercury, on a line with it and Jupiter, you can also glimpse the star Alnath coming into view. Alnath is the second brightest star in the constellation of Taurus.

Transit

Venus and the Daystar.

For the second and last time this century, Venus transits the disk of the sun. Hesper is about to become Lucifer.

'Hesper'

Hesper is the evening star.

Lucifer, the morning star. Photo by antaresrichard