The "Smiley Face" Conjunction

Morning Sky April 25, 2025

It was the much-ballyhooed ‘Smiley Face’ conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Saturn that got me up early to trek to Rye Beach with the Canon camera to get some shots. Yep, same place as the sunrise partial eclipse a month ago. Nobody else there this time.

There they were, just over a bank of clouds, in some bands of cirrus and altostratus and haze.

Saturn was hard to find and disappeared even to the camera as twilight brightened. Ironically, the photo where Saturn showed up best was the iPhone snap I took of the scene off the back screen of the Canon. I’ll see if I can add that later. (Edit: See last photo!)

55mm lens at f/4 for 2 seconds at ISO 800 45 minutes before sunrise

55mm lens at f/4 for 2 seconds at ISO 200 (Lower ISO than previous photo) Lines added extending out from Moon to Venus at top and Saturn at lower right.

Wider shot with 18mm lens at f/7.1 for 1/2 second at ISO 200. Taken 1/2 hour before sunrise.

Photo with wake from swimming duck 15 minutes before sunrise. Moon is out of the frame to the upper right. 55mm lens at f/7.1 for 1/15 second at ISO 200.

Got the Moon in the extreme upper right corner. Same exposure as the previous photo.

Saturn is that tiny dot just to the left of the box in a box showing how much the camera is zoomed. iPhone14 photo of the back of the Canon XS camera live display.