Predawn Celestial Carolers

Like festive carolers lined up during Advent--the moon, planets and a star put on a show during the predawn hours of Saturday, December 16, 2017 in Marion, Iowa. The image shown above looks ESE from Alburnett Road at Bowstring Drive in the Bowman Meadows housing area at 6:23 am CST. Celestial objects are, from bottom left to upper right: waning crescent moon, -1.74 magnitude planet Jupiter, 1.59 magnitude planet Mars, and 0.96 magnitude star Spica (in constellation Virgo). Trailing this lineup below the horizon but not captured here was the planet Mercury, which became visible around 6:45 am; and Venus around 7:05 am. Official sunrise was at 7:29 am. Image is a 4-second exposure at f/6.3, 800 ISO and 18mm focal length. Air temperature was 30 degrees F. Nikon D7200 DSLR.