Celestial Seasons Greetings

Being only a hobbyist star watcher, it would seem that I may have been mis-identifying a planet all summer. I've been trying to snap a photo of the moon in close proximity to what I though was Mars as they danced through the southern sky. I've since learned it's Venus. I would often see them both in the early evening as I took Tannah for her nightly walks. Or sometimes I'd see them in the morning. My goal was to get them aligned in one photo.

I did it once a few years ago from my back yard. As I recall it was summer. My shot was a thin crescent hook hanging just above Venus, low on the western horizon. I refer to this one as my "question mark" photo.

More recently I did get a chance to recreate that pairing on July 16th of this year. On my morning walk with Tannah today I encountered a similar set-up in the southern sky. Totally different celestial placings of course being (almost) Winter, much higher in the sky. I was half tempted to go home to get a better camera, but that risked missing the shot entirely. Recently I've heard that the best camera for the job is the one in your hand, and although I quite like the iPhone's performance in many situations, such a long zoom as a moon shot is stretching its limits. However, it was the camera that was in my hand at the time.