Earthshine Moon With Saturn and Mercury

From the photographer: “During the sunset of day 4 there was a marvelous alignment between the planets and the ashen Moon, illuminated directly by the sun for only 5.5%. After the setting of the planet Venus – now close to showing itself in the early hours of the dawn of the next few days – the leading role of the last moments of daylight has passed to Mercury. In this image the planet shines just to the right of the castle of Cefalà Diana in Sicily while the sickle moon has yet to travel its celestial path and set behind the mountainous relief of Rocca Busambra. A little further up, the celestial alignment is completed by the planet Saturn which, together with the Moon and Mercury, appears to be arranged on one vertex of a right triangle.

The image was taken from the hilly relief of the Chiarastella reserve and shows the castle of Cefalà Diana, a small village in the Palermo province of Sicily. The Castle stands on a cliff about 657 meters high here highlighted by the lights of some passing cars. The construction of the current building dates back to medieval times and today a quadrangular tower adorned with Ghibelline merlons remains clearly visible. In the Middle Ages the castle had a great military and strategic importance given its position which controlled the connection between Palermo and the Val di Mazzara.

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Technical details: Canon 6d, Sigma 105mm, f/2, 2.5 sec, iso 640