Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Sylvania

(Click for larger size)
The other night I walked out to the mailbox after dinner, and coming back up my driveway I noticed a couple bright spots in the sky just over the roof. I hadn't heard this was happening, and had to do a little Googling to find out it was a convergence of Jupiter and Venus. I read that a sliver of the moon was going to be in close conjunction over the next couple nights so I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood with my camera.

I'd never tried any kind of long-exposure photography, so I just guessed at camera settings. High ISO, wide aperture and maximum exposure time—3 seconds on my Fuji E550. Of the 10 or so photos I took last evening around 6:30-6:45pm EST, the one above is the best one I could manage. Obviously, I have a little bit to learn about this stuff. Probably would've helped if I'd gotten away from the neighborhood lights as well.

Makes me really appreciate what my compadre on the Adobe Forums—Jeff P.—does with his camera/telescope/sky-tracking device. He's got some cool galaxy and nebula shots...Go check 'em out.