Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Moon conjunction

Well I was pondering the mysteries of the universe early Saturday morning and the cosmos pondered back at me with this jeering question mark!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16806463@N04/21892576950/in/dateposted-public/

Having enjoyed our Blackheath Observing session of Friday evening, I thought I stayed back a bit to have a go at imaging Uranus only to be told by Rupert before he left, "mate you scope is out of collimation!". He was right, it was. So I spent a little time collimating it then the clouds rolled by the time I finished! I still waited another hour or so to see if it will clear but then I packed it in around 2am, as I also had a desire to see Mercury for the first time in the morning as well as enjoy a lineup of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and a thin crescent moon, and then back to Blackheath for a lift to the next Flamsteed event trip to Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory!

So after 40 winks, I got up at 4am, which was way too early, I had meant to get up at 5am ish, so effectively, I really didnt get any sleep so just ended up waiting half sleepy for the planet to rise.

What I got totally surprised me, as the planets formed a distintinct question mark ironically with the bottom half of the inverse question mark of the Leo constellation!

So we have the Moon forming the full stop, then next up Jupiter, then Mars, then a variable star, then Venus then Regulus and its companion Leo stars to form the top curve of the question mark.

I took lots of images but I chose this one with the whispy thin clouds as I liked its colour when I was watching but the camera always shows it a bit differently.

Then it was off to the Mullard trip which was awesome. After the trip was nodding off everywhere for the rest of the day including a cinema outing with friends which I slept right though the movie, lol.