As I stepped out of my house tonight, I was greeted by a stunning sight: a huge, glowing orb looking directly into our terrace garden, and visible between the tiles ….Wow that was a sight to see. Below are a couple of photos…

The full moon was so bright that it looked like a silver disk surrounded by a halo of light. I felt a surge of awe and gratitude as I gazed at it.

There was a thin layer of cloud passing in front of it. Below is a brief time lapse video of the same.

The full moon is a symbol of completion and fulfillment. We celebrate this particular full moon as ‘Karthika Purnima’ and is one of the most Auspicious and Holy day’s in the calendar. It is a day when both Lord Shiva and Maha Vishnu are worshipped, the benefits for a healthy, prosperous, and spiritually fulfilling life.

Below are some photos taken using a DSLR with a 70-300mm lens. I hope you like it as much as I did. Click on the photos to open in a separate tab.

I have always been fascinated by the night sky and the wonders it holds. That’s why I was so excited to witness a rare and beautiful sight today, November 20, 2023: the Moon and Saturn in close proximity.

This is a conjunction, meaning they have the same apparent right ascension or ecliptic longitude in the sky. It happens when the Moon passes near a planet or a star in its orbit around the Earth. The conjunction occurred at 18:25 IST (12:55 UTC), when the Moon was 3.1° below Saturn. But I waited until after sunset, when they were high enough in the sky, to see them better.

Click any of the photos to see them in a separate tab.

The Moon was a slightly gibbous phase, 56% illuminated, and showed a faint glow on its dark side. This is called earthshine, a phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the Earth’s surface and illuminates the unlit portion of the Moon. It looked like a delicate crescent with a dim outline of the full disk.

Saturn was a pale yellow dot of light, 6.9° to the upper left of Deneb Algedi, the brightest star in the constellation of Capricornus.

I took some photos of the Moon with earthshine and Saturn nearby, and I am sharing them with you here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. They are not professional quality, but they capture the essence of the moment.

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: [Conjunction (astronomy) – Wikipedia]
: [2023, November 20: Saturn-Moon Conjunction, Venus Steps Eastward]
: [Earthshine – Moon Glow – timeanddate.com]
: [Saturn – In-The-Sky.org]