Moon and Venus, June 14, 2010

Here's yet another fabulous conjunction that I totally failed to mention to anyone ahead of time, and completely forgot about myself. After I mowed my lawn and whacked my weeds across town, I settled in to watch a little TV (I'm really starting to like Rules of Engagement). Then I headed out to refill my tank with enough gas for this four-day rotation. As I rolled downhill to a local Uni-Mart, I remembered that it was a BP affiliate, and decided to get gas elsewhere. I also noticed Venus shining brilliantly over the young, thin Moon.

It took me quite a while to get to my second choice for gas, and in that time Venus and the Moon sank lower in the sky. Hurry, hurry, I thought as I filled my tank - 7.103 gallons at $2.549/gallon, with a fuel efficiency of 44.4 miles per gallon in the 315.5 miles since the last fill-up a week ago. I clicked off a quick cell phone photo at the station, recklessly risking a catastrophic gas explosion. But, hey, what is life without danger?

As I headed home I could see clouds forming in the West, occasionally blocking my view of the conjunction. Things looked worse when I pulled up at home. But I got myself to higher ground and set up my tripod at a spot where I could see the sky between two neighbors' houses. And there they were, below rooftop level but out of the zone of clouds. I took a series of nearly-identical photos.

Eventually the Moon sank from sight, and I went in to see what I had caught.

UPDATE: Here's a cropped close-up from one of the photos in this series: