And now, Saturn

The Moon continued its romp along the ecliptic tonight, passing by Saturn. Saturn is not especially bright right now, so tonight's unspectacular conjunction served mainly to help locate Saturn in the sky. And here it is:

The Moon and Saturn, May 22, 2007 9:14 PM EDT

This picture was taken from the parking lot of the Wilkes-Barre Lowe's. Lowe's doesn't have sharpening kits for reel lawn mowers. Neither do Home Depot or Sears. Sears closes at 9:00. Lowe's and Home Depot close at 10:00. I may have to mail order one from Lee Valley.

The rest of these photos have been contrast-enhanced to preserve detail.

The Moon, Saturn, and Venus, May 22 2007, 9:15 PM EDT

The Moon is now nearly too far away from Venus to capture them both in the same field.

Ecliptic portrait, May 22 2007, 9:56 PM EDT

Here's a fun shot. I could see two bright stars above the Moon, and I knew that the two bright stars above Venus were Pollux and Castor (in that order) in Gemini. The star chart on Heavens Above indicated that the Moon is in Leo tonight, nestled right in the Sickle, the backwards question mark that makes up Leo's head, mane, and chest. It took some digging, and an extremely contrast-enhanced image...
...to reveal that these two stars are Alpha Leonis (Regulus) and Gamma Leonis (Algieba).

(UPDATE, 5/23/07, 9:03 AM: Here's an image I should have put together last night:
It's a detail of my super-contrast-enhanced image overlaid with the constellation chart for Leo stolen from Heavens Above. You can see how the stars on the chart overlay the stars in the photo, and how Saturn's blue circle on the chart fits over the red dot of Saturn in the photo. The big difference is the position of the Moon: the photo was taken at 9:56 last night, while the chart shows the location of the Moon at 8:40 or so this morning, a difference of nearly eleven hours. Visual interpolation suggests that the Moon will pass closest to Regulus in about two or three hours from now.)

If you happen to live in Europe or points East, keep an eye on the Moon tomorrow night; it may have a close encounter with Regulus, though you'll have to check your local listings for exact time and channel. The Moon also looks to be having a close encounter with Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion and the Rival of Mars, on the 31st. Sometime, somewhere, on the night of the 1st, the Moon will pass by Jupiter as it makes its rounds.

Check out Heavens Above's All-Sky Chart for precise predictions for your location - enter either your location or your latitude and longitude, then select the date and time you want to see, and you'll get a customized map of the sky for that time, date, and location.