One evening I was using software to show that Mercury & Venus would be well placed for viewing as I travelled to work in the morning. The next morning dawned wonderfully clear and so I took my camera gear and was rewarded with this view of the two innermost planets side by side. 50 mm lens, 100 ISO film, approx. 10 seconds at F4.	The Conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon on April 6th 2000. The image was taken using 100 ISO film & approx. 10 seconds at F4 with a 50 mm lens. On the larger image (click thumbnail) note the earthshine on the Moon. Saturn lies above the Crescent Moon, Jupiter is the brighter of the two 'stars' on the right with Mars the fainter one above and to the right of it.
Jupiter and Saturn also dominate this view taken on the night of February 14th whilst Lorraine & I were waiting to watch the (docked) ISS/Space Shuttle Atlantis to come over. Jupiter & Saturn are seen against the backdrop of the constellation of Taurus with Jupiter the brightest objects at centre and Saturn the other brightest object to it's right. The Open Star Cluster M45 (Seven Sisters or Pleiades) lies above & to the right of Jupiter whilst the 'V' shaped cluster to its left is the Hyades with the bright orange star Aldebaren. 50 mm lens F1.8, 100 ISO slide film and approx. 30 seconds exposure.	This is a 2001 view of Mars when it was near the bright star Antares, which means 'rival of Mars'. It was taken on the night of July 10th at approx. 23:00 BST using 200 ISO film, 50 mm F1.8 lens and a 15 second exposure due to the light sky conditions. Delta Scorpius can also be seen just above the sloping garage roof with Beta Sco above it. Delta brightened since autumn 2000 and still remains brighter than normal. This view also illustrates my problem with observing objects that are low down in the Southern sky and as such I only have a 10 minute window to observe Mars or Antares from the position of the 10" Newtonian. Thus I have to get out the other more portable 'scopes if I wish to observe for longer. Even so I gain at most about 40 minutes for them!
Venus meets Saturn in the morning sky on July 15th 2001 at approx. 3 am. Image taken using a 135 mm lens, F1.8, 200 ISO slide film and approx. 10 seconds exposure as the sky was beginning to lighten. Venus is the brighter of the two central 'stars' in the image with Saturn to its upper left. The gap between them was only 45 arc minutes or just slightly larger than the size of the Moon.  Taking a line from Saturn through Venus and carrying on there can just be glimpsed a star amongst the shrubs and this is Aldebaren in the constellation of Taurus. To get this conjunction I had to climb the bank at the back of our property which unfortunately has plenty of shrubs with thorns in! The mottled dark patches framing the scene are the shrubs which were so tall I had to photograph through a gap in them. If I had waited for the planets to clear the bank, as seen from our garden, then the sky would have been too light. The things we do to get that picture!	During October and November 2001 Mercury put on a spectacular display by rising up into the early morning sky to join with Venus and perform a planetary duet. By Nov 14th they were dropping deeper into the bright morning twilight with Mercury dropping quicker than Venus and leaving it behind, but on this day they were joined by an incredibly slender crescent moon which at the last time of my observing/photographing them was only 23 hours and 54 minutes from New - a record for me for the slimmest crescent moon I have ever seen! I had to adjust the contrast and gamma on this image as Mercury was almost lost in the twilight sky but I'm pleased it can still be seen in the main image when you click on the above picture. If you're wondering about the darker out of focus blobs are - they're branches of our tree and the dark section at the bottom is the roof of one of the industrial units on the industrial estate at the back of us!
Mercury caught using a digital camera - March 6th 2005 in the bright evening twilight.	Mercury in conjunction with the Moon on March 11th 2005 taken just before it poured with rain!
Venus meets Mercury on June 27th 2005
Venus and fainter Mercury to it's right at 22:12 BST on June 26th 2005 less than 24 hours before closest approach. Taken with a 50mm lens, ToUCam webcam and a tripod.	Venus (top) and Mercury taken with the 10" F5 Newtonian and a Philips ToUCam webcam at 18:55 BST on June 27th 2005 . Mercury lies just under 4 arc minutes away from Venus!
Montage showing Mercury passing Venus on June 27th 2005. Image 1 and 2 were taken using the 10" telescope but both planets were behind our house by image 3 so I had to use a 500mm lens and the webcam on a tripod for that image. They are both shown in relation to the celestial sphere. Closest approach occurred approx an hour before the first image was taken but our tree was in the way!!	Similar view but with emphasis on the changing position of Mercury with respect to Venus.

This image shows 3 of the bright planets along the ecliptic on April 6th 2002. Mars is at lower right with Saturn at center and Jupiter the bright 'star' at upper left. Orion is on the center left whilst Taurus is at center with the open cluster M45 or Pleiades (Seven Sisters) above Mars. This image was on 1600 ISO slide film, 50 seconds using a 28mm wide angle lens at F2.8. The light pollution is from Horncastle and further off in the distance, Lincoln, UK.

COAA, Algarve, Portugal. Late April and May the main bright planets all gathered in the evening sky and this view captured them all on May 11th 2002 including the Earth in the foreground. This must be my best image of planetary get togethers and was taken using the 50mm lens at F1.8 and 20 seconds exposure.

The Zodiacal Light - this image was also taken from near COAA on the outskirts of a small village called Mexilhoeira Grande in March 1993 after I had successfully done the Messier Marathon a few days earlier. The lights at the bottom left are the village and as the original picture was taken using the Super Polaris (Equatorial) Mount I have rotated the image so that the ground is now horizontal! Near the top of the image lies the open cluster M45 (see above) but extending from the horizon upwards toward it is the Zodiacal Light. low level cloud also reflects off nearby lights as can be seen just above the village.

Here we see the Zodiacal Light again from COAA during our 2002 holiday using a 28mm lens and an approx exposure of just over 1 minute unguided showing the planets about an hour or so after sunset. It was taken on the same day as the planetary line up shown in the previous section above. I have used computer processing to help bring out the Zodiacal Light which everyone present could see with the naked eye and can be seen here. Mercury had set and Saturn is very close to the horizon!

My thanks to Bev Ewen-Smith at COAA for his help with some of these images.