Conjunction of the crescent Moon, Mercury and Venus with ISS passes

I managed to get enough gaps in the clouds last evening to capture the 4.4% slender crescent Moon with Mercury and Venus which looked rather splendid in the evening twilight sky. Images were taken with a Sony A77 MKII using a 16 to 50mm F2.8 lens.

I saw the ISS go overhead around 22:10 in a still quite bright sky and decided to image the next pass at 23:45 to see if I could see the Japanese Transfer Vehicle (HTV-9) which is heading to dock with it in a few hours from now. Lo and behold I could see it trailing the ISS some distance away as the ISS made its way from Cancer to Leo. The images have also picked up the Beehive Cluster (Praesepe) in Cancer too.

I watched them pass by Arcturus and continued to image as I saw them continue onwards towards the terminator between Serpens and Ophiuchus where I saw the ISS fade out as another satellite intersected its path.

Images again taken with my Sony A77 MKII undriven with 15 second exposures. I added the gifs made in Adobe ImageReady to highlight the movement of the various crafts.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Chris Bowden