July 15 Venus/Moon Conjunction

A first, clouds low in the western sky threatened to obscure the close Venus-crescent moon conjunction show from this Cedar Rapids, Iowa location in Bowman Woods Park on the evening of Sunday, July 15, 2018. Instead, the clouds mixed with the setting sun provided for a beautiful sunset and a good warm-up for the celestial event. This image was captured at 8:38 pm CDT. Official sunset was at 8:40 pm.

By 8:53 pm (above) the clouds had begun to dissipate and the crescent moon and planet Venus revealed themselves brilliantly in open sky. This image looks southwest and is a 1/50 second exposure at f/11, ISO 500 and 55mm focal length.

9:07 pm. In the foreground is Bowman Woods Elementary School. Venus glittered at magnitude -4.12 and was within 2 degrees of the moon. This image is a 1/30 second exposure at f/6.3, 500 ISO and 46mm focal length. Air temperature was 79 degrees. Mosquitos were beginning to bite vigorously, so it was time to retire from the field! Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.