A few images of the Vulcan rocket launch last evening that was seen up and down the east coast of North America. The first image on the left is from Mark Pisano in Hunlock Creek, PA, showing the exhaust plume framed by the Big Dipper. The second image was taken at the Friedman Observatory.

Crescent Moon and Venus tonight from Wilkes-Barre. This is a good example of Earthshine, and the larger phenomenon of planetshine, when the light from the day lit side of a planet reflects off of orbiting moons. Galileo's drawing of Earthshine is on Wikipedia:

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Venus and crescent Moon, tonight from Philadelphia, PA.

Moon and Venus from last evening. Faint Saturn, which was 967,930,750 miles from Earth last night, appeared after the Sun had set.

Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn all in the sky this Thursday, January 23, 2025 @ 6:30 PM at the Friedman Observatory!