A Morning Meeting

Venus (lowest), Jupiter (middle), and the crescent Moon form a celestial triangle at dawn. Above them are bright winter stars rising before sunrise on this August night. Photographed from Uludag National Park near Bursa in Turkey, the city light appears from this high altitude view point (1734 m). Click on the second photo to see this planetary conjunction a day later, captured from the city of Bursa, with the delicate moon crescent shrinking in thickness and closer to the horizon.