Sam and I just got back from looking at the conjunction this evening. Venus was of course the much brighter of the two. The encroaching clouds actually helped a bit giving some variety to the background. This was with a lens set at 70mm for 2 seconds.
With wild unsubstantiated rumors that four planets could be seen in the early evening, I decided to see for myself. Jack, ever the skeptic, also wanted to see for himself so we drove over to my new favorite western horizon spot on Wellington Hills Road for a look. As you can see from the shots below, it was true. Four planets, one large natural satellite and an airplane were visible at around 6:30 this evening. Mercury will be getting higher though dimmer in the next week or so. In the one shot, that is Venus near the Moon and Jupiter to the upper left. In the other, that is Mercury about two thirds of the way down in the light blue with the airplane moving to the left under it and the Earth under all that. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Solar halos spotted in Little Rock one cold winter day
