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Best photos of the Mercury-Mars conjunction

Pink twilight sky with labeled Mars and Mercury close together, and stars Castor and Pollux marked.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dr Ski in Valencia, Philippines, caught Mars and Mercury on the day following their conjunction, June 19, 2019. The nearby stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini are a great comparison. Those 2 stars are noticeable for being bright and close together. Mercury and Mars were much closer! Thanks, Dr Ski!
Two bright dots close together against slate-blue sky. Mars is distinctly reddish.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Wow! You can really see the color difference between red Mars (on the left) and Mercury in this photo from the day of the conjunction – June 18, 2019 – by Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Thanks, Peter!
Faint, labeled Mercury and Mars in a graying twilight sky, above the treetops.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Here’s a June 17 photo from Jose Lagos in Vaals, Netherlands. He wrote, “This was the last image I could get before June 18, when it was too cloudy near the horizon, but you can see that the conjunction is nearly perfected. It was beautiful to behold even this much of it. Thank you for your time and your great work at Earth Sky.” Thank you for your photo and kind words, Jose!
Mercury and Mars in darkened sky, above a well-lighted building on a hilltop.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Gilbert Vancell caught the planets on June 18, too, and wrote: “Mercury (top) and Mars setting behind Comino Tower. Shot from Armier, Malta.”
A colorful pink and blue twilight sky over cityscape, with 2 faint starry dots very close together.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Helio C. Vital captured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 18, 2019. He wrote, “Despite the fact that many clouds were floating over my western horizon this evening, I could get some photos of Mercury and Mars only 14 arcminutes apart over Rio de Janeiro at dusk (from 17:45 to 18:30 UTC-3h, June 18, 2019).Forming a beautiful close pair through binoculars, Mercury was an easy naked-eye target while Mars (4.4 times dimmer) required the use of averted vision to be briefly spotted. Hope my images can help give you an idea of what the interesting event looked like.”

Bottom line: Photos from the night of and around the June 18, 2019, conjunction of Mercury and Mars, closest conjunction of two planets this year.

Posted 
June 23, 2019
 in 
Astronomy Essentials

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