I fell in love with astronomy as a kid, having been mesmerized by the sight of Saturn’s majestic rings when I got my first book about space. I used to do a fair bit of stargazing when I was a kid, having been a proud owner of a 60mm refracting telescope that my dad bought me at Black’s for Christmas when I was 14. It was a shoddy telescope at best but I was once able to see Jupiter’s Galilean satellites one night from my driveway. That alone made it all worth it.

My telescope now gathers dust in my daughter’s closet, but my passion is still there, even if I don’t gaze up at the stars as often as I did. This past weekend, I once again looked up, and what a treat it was! The moon was joined by two planets: Jupiter, and Venus. I checked online, and apparently February is a great month for viewing Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Mercury, with the former two being fairly prominent throughout the night, and the latter two being more prominent at dawn and/or dusk (I forget which). Of course, when I caught sight of Jupiter and Venus, I didn’t have my DSL on me. Fortunatley, my iPhone came to the rescue, and I was actually able to snap a couple of decent photos. I have to say that the iPhone 4S camera freaking rocks. I really can’t say it enough. It really does, and it does a great job of taking low-light and nighttime photos. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually set up my tripod and try to getsome good astro photos with my big girl camera.

Venus and the crescent moon

The Jupiter (very top left), Venus (bottom left), and crescent moon