May the Fourth be With You

"I do not pretend to understand the universe. It is a great deal bigger than I am."

- Tom Stoppard

we were awoken by the kids needing tag-team toileting at about 3 this morning. Oddly, after returning to sleep, I then awoke not much after five. I ended up getting up at about 5:20 or so, and as I went down to the kitchen I looked outside. There I saw Venus shining brightly and decided to grab my camera and tripod. I then remembered the conjunction of 4 of the 5 visible planets (not counting Earth...) and hoped I might see them. I was very happy that not only did I see them, I managed to get what I think were some pretty good photos of them.

May the fourth be with me indeed. I was gutted about missing the conjunction over the weekend and earlier part of this week - due to clouds in the sky and fever in my body ;-)

Anyway, Venus is the brightest planet, right at the top. Closest to her is Mercury. Next down and second brightest is Jupiter, and below him Mars. (Forgive my anthropomorphising.) Here is a L A R G E version.

I've also just realised the time in my camera was 1 hour ahead; this was taken at 5:45, not 6:45