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Love's Kingly Lights

Subject: Venus and Jupiter Date: February 22, 1999 Location: Provo, UT Lens: 28mm F-stop: 2.8 Exposure time: ~10s Filters: none Film: Kodak Max ISO/ASA: 800 About the Title: Be sure to scroll down and see the bottom of the picture -- Venus and Jupiter at their closest. Venus is the goddess of love, and Jupiter is the king of the gods. The colors are from city lights, reflected off of the moisture and clouds of the night. See also Jovian Love and Jovian Love in the City

All night as I shot pictures of the Venus-Jupiter pair I was fighting lights from surrounding buildings, streetlamps, stoplights, and especially from car headlights. I finally decided to take a picture with the lights themselves, as they were rather pleasing. I put on my wide-angle lens, and pointed the camera, low enough to capture the planet pair, but high enough to avoid direct beams from car headlights, which would certainly overexpose the film. I was surprised at the beauty of the result. Those same lights that ruin many an astrophotograph contributed nicely when I planned them in. I was also unaware at the time that I had the Pleiades cluster in the frame. They are barely visible at the very top. Saturn is also visible toward the middle left.