A Cosmic Triangle

Explanation: It was an astronomical triple play. Setting on the left, just after sunset near the end of last month, was our Moon -- showing a bright crescent phase. Setting on the right was Venus , the brightest planet in the evening sky last month -- and this month, too . With a small telescope, you could tell that Venus' phase was half, meaning that only half of the planet, as visible from Earth , was exposed to direct sunlight and brightly lit. High above and much further in the distance was the Pleiades star cluster . Although the Moon and Venus move with respect to the background stars , the Pleiades do not -- because they are background stars. In the beginning of this month, Venus appeared to move right in front of the Pleiades , a rare event that happens only once every eight years . The featured image captured this cosmic triangle with a series of exposures taken from the same camera over 70 minutes near Avonlea , Saskatchewan , Canada . The positions of the celestial objects was predicted . The only thing unpredicted was the existence of the foreground tree -- and the astrophotographer is still unsure what type of tree that is.