Doug took the following photos on the morning of Sunday December 10, 2006. That morning Jupiter, Mercury and Mars were all within a couple degrees of each other.
Hi, all, if you missed it here’s how the conjunction looked this morning. At the top is Mercury at magnitude -0.6, about 0.3 degrees below it is Jupiter at magnitude -1.7, and Mars is just under a degree to the right, a much fainter magnitude 1.5.
There is a larger version of this photo. You can view the larger version by clicking on the photo above. Depending on the quality of your monitor you may be able to pick out the very faint (magnitude 2.6) Beta Scorpii which is just to the upper left of Mercury. Viewing the picture at full size may help.
There were houses in the way from my back yard so I had to drive to the east side of my subdivision where there is a low, clear horizon. Doug
Here’s a more natural looking, less zoomed in shot. The first image was a cropped version of this one. It was a beautiful sight, but boy, those metal tripod legs sure get cold! Doug