Last week the planets Venus and Jupiter shone brightly in the western sky after sunset. This week, the new crescent moon joins the planets creating a triangle of brilliant objects in the sky.

Using star charts and other maps we determined that if we hiked a short distance along the Templeton Trail that the planetary and moon conjunction would be nicely positioned above Cathedral Rock in Sedona. As the sky darkened the celestial objects shone brightly but the lighting on the rocks was quickly fading. This image was the best combination of bright objects but with enough light to still see the details in the beautiful red rocks.

Later, as the planets and Moon set behind Cathedral Rock more stars appeared. To get some soft light on the tree I used a flash that was set to manual mode with the lowest light output and stood off to the side and fired the flash manually.

In  a few weeks, Venus and Jupiter will be at their closest approach to each other. And it will be time for a another set of photographs.