Planetary Parade

Back on July 10, when our son and daughter in law were driving us to Newark Airport, in NJ. We looked out of our car window and saw Venus and the star Regulus real near each other. Regulus sets much earlier now. In fact it had set when I took these pictures shortly after 8pm today. But the planets are putting on a great show. A couple weeks ago, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury were in a nice slanted line in the western sky. Now Mars has moved up right next to Saturn. You might need to click on the above picture to make it bigger in order to see the stars and planets. Mercury is just barely above the extreme lower right edge of the roof of the house. Venus is bright and is a little to the left of the middle of the picture. Mars and Saturn (left to right) are the pair of "stars' a little to the upper left of Venus.

Here is a closer picture of Mars and Saturn at the top and Venus at the bottom. The top picture was shot with a 24mm lens and I cropped it a little. The bottom picture was with an 85mm lens and is not cropped. Mars will be to the upper left of Saturn in a day or two. A week from now, on Aug. 9, Venus will be right about where Mars is now! You can see them move from night to night if you have clear skies. (we usually don't)