The Christmas Star

Just about everyone has seen a picture during Christmas, in which the Christmas star is pictured as a bright star shaped object, and so with the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn the excitement was high! We had checked out a place to view the conjunction of the two planets, as getting away from the city lights of Rockport, Texas was a priority.

Crossing Copano Bay we turned left and were surprised to see that our spot was crowded with cars. We barely were able to park and people already had their lawn chairs and cameras out. Finding a narrow opening and were able to set up near the water’s edge.

The sun had already set, so we set up our camera and took some pictures of the red sunset. Clouds were threatening and we hoped it would stay clear enough for some decent shots. A ring was trying to form around the moon, a sign of an approaching front and I took several images with our camera in the manual setting.

Everyone was waiting for the moment, but as I looked up, I could see Jupiter and Saturn were already visible. I told our neighbors it was visible, and after a few seconds one of them asked me if that all the better it will be? Telling them it would be brighter when the sky reached full night darkness.

Word spread through the crowd, people were social distancing, and people got back in their cars and left. In no time at all only two cars were left, but we did not care as we wanted to try some new camera settings.

Forty-eight images later we decided it was time to go and as we took down our tripod the last car started up and left. Most of my images did not work but it was ok, as I did get a few good photos and some idea as what worked and what did not.

Clear skies and Merry Christmas