Various astronomy matters turn-up that in the future I intend to record from time-to-time in WTSM as AstroBites, a shorter blog format than usual that will also be recorded separately in the index.

This month has started with a new crescent Moon in Pisces that at sunset last night was in alignment with Mars and Venus. I stepped outside briefly at 6.30pm and managed to image this incidence, just. Although also in crescent form at the moment, with an apparent magnitude of -4.4 Venus was as always very bright. However, with an apparent diameter of 4.7 arc seconds and magnitude +1.1 at the moment, Mars is faint and very small but can just be seen in the image.

Moon & Venus in alignment + half-way in between, also in alignment, is Mars | Canon EOS 700D | 24mm f4 1/30 sec @ ISO800 | 2nd March 2017

Cropped image shows Mars covering about 4 pixels!