Conjunction Junction

An infrequent conjunction (close clustering) of all the naked-eye planets and the moon made their appearance in our night skies on May 14, 2002. Shown in this view looking west over the grounds of Northbrook Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is a waxing crescent moon (brightest object, center), the planet Venus (immediately to the right of the moon) and the planet Mars (just below and right of Venus). Not shown in this image but located in an upper left-to-lower right diagonal line from the others is the planet Jupiter (toward upper left) and planets Saturn and Mercury (behind the tree line, below and right of Mars). This short time exposure was taken at 9:45 PM.