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Venus, Saturn, Aldebaran, and the Moon
A very favorable conjunction of planets was apparent in the early morning sky during the summer of 2001. This grouping of Venus (brightest circle, left and below the moon), Saturn (less bright, above and left of the moon) and Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus (right and below the moon) could be seen well before sunrise, around 4 AM. Later in the morning Jupiter and Mercury were visible to people with unobstructed eastern horizons. In this image, the triangular asterism forming the nose or head of the bull can be seen extending up and to the right of the moon
| Date | 17 July 2001, about 4 AM PDT |
| Scope | Camera piggy-backed on Astro-Physics 130 f6 on A-P 900GTO mount |
| Camera | Nikon F100 with Nikkor 80-200 mm zoom at 200 mm |
| Exposure | Kodak E 200; f2.8; 20 sec |
| Processing | Cropped and stretched in PhotoShop |