Dusk and dawn astronomy: Mercury and Jupiter

At sunset last night I drove up to the top of the Heath (where there is a terrific 360 degree horizon) to look for Mercury, the smallest planet in the Solar System. It's also the most difficult to see, being close to the Sun. At the moment it's at its greatest eastern elongation, so I eventually managed a few 'snaps', despite the haze over Norwich.

This morning I crawled out of bed at 04.15 and drove to the same spot to catch the long-anticipated four-planet conjunction. All the Astro magazines and websites have been banging on for ages about how rare a sight it is to see Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn and the Moon all together in the eastern sky. In the event, by the time they had risen, the sky was too bright to see anything other than Jupiter and the Moon!