Morning pairing

  

Waning crescent Moon on the left and a bright Venus on the right.  Photographed from Cotati in the early morning of 19 October 2025.

And here's a close-up of the Moon:

 

 

From the Oort cloud

  

We lingered at the coast tonight to try to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.  After a beautiful sunset (with Venus, above), we eventually located the comet. We had great views with binoculars, and I tried to take a photo, but I'm afraid I don't have experience photographing comets!  But for the record, here's a view of the comet from Bodega Head on 18 October 2024:

Venus and the Moon

  

I missed seeing the Moon pass in front of Venus this morning, but it was still a pretty view with both high in the early morning sky.

Crescent moon, Venus, and Saturn

 

 

Crescent moon, Venus, and Saturn at sunset on 23 January 2023.  [Venus is down and to the right of the moon, and Saturn is down and to the right of, but fairly close to, Venus.  Saturn is likely too faint to see in this photo, but see below for orientation.]

Early evening view

  

A quick shot of the crescent moon and Venus, photographed from Cotati on 7 November 2021.

Lighting the way

Waning crescent moon and Venus at dawn on 2 January 2019:

 

Purplish light at sunset on 2 January 2019:

 

And sea glass-green waves in between:

 

 

 What a beautiful way to start the new year!

Together again

 

Al reminded me to share this photo of the Moon and Venus.  [Click on the image for a larger version.]  Photographed from Cotati on 15 July 2018.

P.S.  Thanks, Al!

 

First day

I helped out with the Western Sonoma County Christmas Bird Count today.  Whew!  A blustery day!  Not much time for pictures, but here are a few to remember the first day of the year:


A Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) basking in the early morning sun:

 

Sunset rays and showers:

 

Venus and a waxing crescent moon:

 

"Planetary dance"

A couple of days ago, Skip commented that Mars was probably in the picture I posted of Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon.  He was right, so I thought I'd try again — and this time, to take a picture highlighting Mars.

Here's the first attempt (taken on 14 October 2015). Venus is at the top (the brightest), Jupiter is at the bottom (second brightest), and Mars is just above Jupiter.  It's small and reddish in color, so harder to see.  Can you find it?

 

Here's the same picture with an arrow pointing to Mars:

 

And so you can see it better (and find it yourself in the morning sky), here's a close-up of Jupiter (bottom) and Mars (top).  [Mars is very easy to see with binoculars and is distinctly red.]

 

Skip also mentioned two special celestial events coming up soon:

- Jupiter and Mars will be in conjunction (at the same latitude when viewed from Earth) on October 17th — the closest they'll be to each other until January 2018.  

- And then Jupiter will continue moving towards Venus, and will be in conjunction with Venus on October 26th.  

Watch for this "planetary dance" in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

  

Cold and clear

 

Well, people in other parts of the world might be surprised that this seems significant, but 23°F is cold for this area!  I took this picture of our outdoor car thermometer (above) in the town of Bodega this morning at 8:07 a.m.  Brrrrrr!  And I'm guessing it will be even colder tomorrow (Thursday) morning.  We'll see!

Cold, clear conditions also made for good celestial viewing at the end of the day.  Have you been looking at the western horizon at dusk recently?

 

The waxing crescent moon and Venus are getting closer and closer together, and will be even closer to each other on December 5th.  Venus is very bright, and apparently will be at its brightest on December 6th (but you'll want to look for it on the 5th because it might be raining on the 6th).

Here's a close-up of the crescent moon.  It sets around 8:16 p.m. on December 5th, but will be visible during twilight before then.