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Moon, Mars and Venus Conjunction over Mount Whitney

Planet moon conjunction February 20, 2015

I was evaluating places to capture the moon with Mars and Venus nearby last Friday, and +Lori Hibbett suggested, "How about Mount Whitney?" Mount Whitney is the highest peak in America's contiguous 48 states, and is has a nice, pointy summit. I checked with +The Photographer's Ephemeris, and sure enough, there were several positions we could shoot from and capture the moon and planets setting.

Shooting the actual event was just as straightforward as expected based on the predictions. As the moon and planets set in the first location closest to the mountain, we moved back to the next location and captured them setting again. The sky was getting a little dark by the third location, roughly 2 hours after sunset, so it was time to head in for dinner at that point.

#moon #moonmarsvenus #conjunction #astronomy #photography #landscapephotography www.JeffSullivanPhotography.com

 
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45 thoughts on “Moon, Mars and Venus Conjunction over Mount Whitney”

  13. Eva Celeste
    Reply

    You are saying this was taken on Friday the 20th…Amazing! Some liars out there are trying to say the New Moon was this day or even the 21st. As we can see that is not so. Thank you!

  14. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    +Eva Celeste The new moon was February 18, so this night was close to the new moon date. Only s sliver of the moon was lit by the sun, the rest was lit by a nearly "full earth" shining light onto the shaded portion. Just as a full moon enables us to walk around and see well once our eyes adjust, when the earth is brightly lit by the sun, the portions of the moon experiencing night are lit well enough for our cameras here on earth to pick up some detail.

    Prior to sunset I was having trouble seeing the crescent moon, so I checked three programs to see how much of the moon's surface was illuminated. The first one said 1.6%, which was not promising, the second said 14%, which should have made the moon visible when I was looking, and the third said 6.3%. So I can't tell you accurately how much of a crescent moon it was, but 2 days after the new moon, the moon was enough towards the sun from us for the earth to be well lit and reflecting a lot of sunlight back on the moon.

  15. Eva Celeste
    Reply

    +Jeff Sullivan Wow! Thank you so much for confirming that fact. I hope to see you do this every Moon. Thanks, again! Thanks for your words also, there is manipulating out there, even with NASA, but the Sun and Moon are true witnesses. I don't understand it all, but they work together for our days, months, and years, not a man made calendar.

  16. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    +Gertjan Stolwijk Exactly! I hadn't even checked the moon phase before planning this alignment of three planets (including earth) and the moon, but I couldn't have asked for a nicer coincidence than one of those planets reflecting light back on the unlit portion of the moon.

    I've learned not to call the unlit portion of the moon the dark side of the moon, not even in a descriptive sense, because many people insist that the "dark" side can only refer to the far side, even when that "dark" side is bathed in full sunlight.

  19. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    +javier hernandez No, that's the one program I didn't use. Hundreds of people caught the same event in various stages around the world: https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=moon%20Mars%20Venus&sort=date-posted-desc
    I plan moon rise and set shots all the time using +The Photographer's Ephemeris and +PhotoPills, and have no need to fake one:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreysullivan/sets/72157623567602630/

    I don't even have a full copy of Photoshop CS, I only have a copy of stripped-down Photoshop Elements that I got years ago in a bundle with Premiere Elements, which I use for video editing. I mainly use Photoshop Elements to save Windows screen copies with; I can't remember the last time I ran it. For photography I have no use for a program designed for graphic artists. Adobe Lightroom has nearly all of the features that I need to make some minor adjustments to a photograph.

  30. Ehran Chandler
    Reply

    I was able to capture several photos of the moon looking exactly how it looks in this case, from Sierra Vista, AZ. I was not able to get any information on what the event was and whether it was a product of shadow reflection from the Earth or something else entirely. Would it be possible for someone to help me out with the actual explanation?

  41. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    +Ehran Chandler The new moon was February 18, so this night was close to the new moon date, when the moon is towards the sun. From the earth we could only see a small sliver of the moon lit by the sun, since the sun was on the other side of it. The rest of the moon's surface you see dimly lit here was lit by "earth shine", light from a nearly "full earth" as seen from the moon, reflecting sunlight onto the shaded portion of the moon.

    Just as a full moon enables us to walk around and see well once our eyes adjust, when the earth is brightly lit by the sun, the portions of the moon experiencing night are lit well enough for our cameras here on earth to pick up some detail.

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