Night Sky from Mt. Diablo

Tonight my photo meetup group did a nighttime star shoot at Mt. Diablo.  This was in conjunction with the monthly Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society's monthly viewing, so we were able to stay in the park after dark.  In the center of the photo is Venus.  I also got to see it through a huge telescope (cannon-sized) and it's actually a crescent right now.  Venus, like the moon, rotates on its axis at the same rate that it spins around the sun, so it has a light and dark side just like the moon.   It's almost rising and setting with the sun right now, thus the crescent shape, and in a few weeks will actually eclipse the sun.  I was told this only happens every 100 years.   I also got to see saturn, including its rings and three moon!  Very cool!

August 12

I've been waiting a month to try this photo.  I tried it the evening we first got here, but messed it up because it was windy and I wasn't prepared.  So tonight we were at a meteor viewing site, and that really limited how I could frame the shot.  I kind of wish there were a few trees just a little further in the distance, then I could have zoomed in much closer without cutting out the tree frames.  I like how this is framed, but the moon is kind of small.  I love that you can almost see a nose on the moon (if you zoom in, that is).  Maybe it will be more prominent tomorrow, but the moon will set almost an hour later compared to the sun, so I wouldn't get that sunset lighting which is what I really wanted.  I think that planet in the shot is Venus.  A bunch of planets are supposed to align tonight, but Venus should be the brightest so it would show at sunset. 

f/5.6, 4.5 sec., 55mm, ISO100, vivid, WBsunny