This morning Venus stood, for a few hours, very close to a relatively bright star, χ Ophiuchi, and it really looked like Venus suddenly got a moon. The conjunction lasted only a few hours, and at around 9 am I could have imaged something even closer, but you know, it’s daylight at 9am. The picture below is a composite of several exposure levels, with Venus also recorded as a separate frame at a higher magnification, to get a smoother look. The instruments: ASI 224 MC @ N 150/750 on the HEQ5. Bad seeing due to the city looming underneath the view.
HIP 80569, HD 148184 [* in Oph] 7 Chi Oph, B2Vne, 525ly 4.22m [simbad] [photo-planner]
Earlier I had the opportunity to see many Jupiter-Venus close conjunctions. Like this and this.





