The waning crescent Moon and Venus in a close conjunction at dawn in the desert skies of Arizona, but here looking east toward N

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The waning crescent Moon and Venus in a close conjunction at dawn in the desert skies of Arizona, but here looking east toward New Mexico. This was December 7, 2015 when later in the morning the Moon occulted Venus in a daytime event for North America. I shot this from the Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona. Spica is to the right and Mars is at top of frame. This is a stack of 7 exposures from 10 seconds to seconds at 1 stop intervals and blended with luminosity masks, to compress the huge range in brightness from the bright Moon and Venus, plus horizon sky, and the darker sky and sunrise clouds. All with the 35mm lens and Canon 6D.

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Size: 3600px × 5400px
Location: Arizona
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 7, 2015, america, arizona, astronomy, atmospheric., blue, close, clouds, colorful, conjunction, crescent, dawn, daytime, december, desert, east, event, hdr, luminosity, mars, mask, mexico, mexico., moon, morning, mountains, north, occultation, occulted, orange, pink, silhouette, skies, sky, spica, sunrise, venus, waning