Moon and Mars Together

Mars was within 34,000,000 miles of the earth tonight, and though Mars certainly was not as large as the moon, it certainly was the brightest in the sky other than the moon.

Moon and Mars  Together
©August 28, 2010 PK Hawk

I sure hope this shows up on here as well as it did on my computer screen. I live on the west coast in sunny southern California. I managed to get a few shots of the moon with Mars off to the right. It's unbelievable how many other stars show in the photos I took about half an hour ago.

Just checked my digital camera, and it appears that I took several pictures between 12:27 and about 12:35 A.M. Pacific time.  I actually managed to get both planets in the same frame. Fortunately, the only cloud that I could see was low enough in the sky it didn't block my view.  After previewing the photo, as I was afraid, the picture is too small for Mars to show up very much, but if you look carefully, off to the right, and slightly higher up on the frame, you should be able to make out the planet Mars.

I suppose I could have taken a telephoto shot, but then, the two planets would not have been in the same frame. On this Plinky post, the photos aren't large enough for Mars to be seen very easily. It looks like a pin-point in the picture above. When this same photo is blown up to screen size, it can be seen much better. Once I loaded my pix onto my IMAC, I lit up the exposure, and adjusted it to make the photo as visible as possible.

See you in the year 2287 for the next Mars up close and personal visit.