Low-light Highlights From May 17

With ample time to prepare for the crescent moon/Venus conjunction after sunset in Marion, Iowa on the evening of Thursday, May 17, 2018, there were other sky capture opportunities as well. The setting sun creating a blazing vista was one. Above, the sun sets at the tree line near East Robins Road at 8:14 pm CDT, captured as a Aperture Priority setting from a new section of Hampshire Drive in Marion. Official sunset on this day was 8:22 pm.

A zoomed-in 210mm focal length Aperture Priority capture of the same scene a minute later.

Getting into the act in the northwest sky at 8:24 pm was this eastbound jet aircraft and its trailing contrail plume.

8:27 pm. Materializing from the growing darkness but behind a thin veil of clouds was the waxing crescent moon and its conjunction companion, the -3.95 magnitude planet Venus (right).

By 8:48 pm the cloud cover had diminished considerably, allowing the pair to hang majestically over a lighted city landscape with the last fading remnants of the sun's influence still in evidence. Image is a 1/10-second exposure at f/8, 400 ISO and 31mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.