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Peter Lowenstein
Mutare, Zimbabwe
03/20/2020
05:06 am

Equipment Details:

Tripod-mounted Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 in night scenery mode

Post-processing Details:

Photoshop Elements 15 - Slight adjustment of foreground brightness and contrast and minimal application of Star Spikes Pro filter to the planets.

Image Details:

Jupiter-Mars Conjunction with Saturn, Moon and Mercury below.
Despite a forecast of night-time mist and low cloud the sky cleared sufficiently before dawn to reveal the close conjunction of Jupiter and Mars with Saturn, the Waning Crescent Moon and Mercury below. Patience and persistence were required to wait for the Moon and all four planets to become visible at the same time and for the whole group to rise sufficiently for Mercury to appear through a gap between some trees in the foreground. Additional features are the triangular configuration of stars in the constellation Capricornus which symmetrically frame the Moon and include the very close pair Algedi and a1-Cap faintly visible below and to the left of Saturn (picture best viewed HD full screen).