Twilight Wanderers - Venus, Mars and the Moon
Living in a city denies me much of the pleasure of a truly dark and starry sky. The stately seasonal progression of the constellations is diminished by the orange glow of streetlamps. There are some events though that stand out against the bright city sky and towards the end of February a conjunction of planets and the slender crescent Moon caught the eye as they hung low in the west where the twilight lingered.
On the 19th February bright Venus could be seen with ruddy red Mars a little above it.
Above: Venus and Mars, February 19th 2015
On the 20th this scene was augmented by the arrival of the slender crescent Moon, just a day or two past new, with the glow of earthshine bringing a ghostly illumination to its craters and seas.
Above: Venus, Mars and the Crescent Moon, February 20th 2015
Sadly on the 21st, when Mars and Venus were at their closest, the sky was lost to cloud and rain. It had been wonderful to see it the previous two nights though, particularly amidst the glow of the city.