Moon Photo-Bombs Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction

A thin crescent moon joined the planets Saturn and Jupiter in the southwest sky on the evening of Wednesday, December 16, 2020. The two planets are on their way toward their close visual rendezvous, which will occur on Monday, December 21, 2020, when they will appear to be touching. The image above was captured at 5:28 pm CST from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is a 1.3 second exposure at f/9, ISO 400 and 55mm focal length. Saturn (upper left) shone at magnitude 0.63, Jupiter at -1.98. 

5:30 pm. 5 second exposure at f/9, ISO 250, 40mm focal length. Air temperature was about 21 degrees F.