August Triad

At center above this cornfield located just south of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church and east of C Avenue near Marion, Iowa is the triangular formation of the planet Mars (upper left), planet Saturn (upper right) and star Spica (below planets). This image was captured just after 9:00 PM, Friday, August 24, 2012. It is a 15-second exposure at f/6.3, 400 ISO and 26mm focal length. Mars shone at magnitude 1.17, Saturn at 0.79, and Spica at 0.96. Spica is the dominant star in the constellation Virgo.