This page has images of the close encounter between Mercury, Saturn, and the Moon from November & December 2013.

Peek-a-boo Mercury, Moon, and Saturn

The crescent Moon and earthshine are easy to see, while Saturn is the bright object above in the clouds.  Mercury is a bit harder to see; it's showing through a small slit below and left, right above the treetops. 

Story & details:  I wasn't happy to see clouds after getting up at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday 12/1 to shoot this conjunction.  I checked the weather, which noted conditions in my area were "overcast."  It did look like things might be somewhat clear to the east and I decided to give it a try.  I was able to focus on a star peeking through the clouds.  I shot a few manual exposures, then set the camera to shoot frames every 10 seconds while monitoring and tweaking the exposure.  I went for about 45 minutes.  Despite all the clouds, I was able to get 8 frames with all three objects showing (out of over 200 shots).  Image above used the Nikon D7000 and VR 18-200 lens at f4.8 and 50mm, 5s at ISO 800 at 6:10 a.m.  21-Nu Librae is just above the Moon while Zubenesch (27-Beta Librae) is over to the left.  The waning Moon is 3.2% illuminated, while Saturn is mag 0.57 and Mercury is mag -0.66.  Scroll down to see more.

Moon, Saturn, and Mercury 12/1/13

Mercury is a little tricky here, it's just to the left of a tree in the bright red area below left.  This one was shot at 6:05 a.m., same equipment as previous shot but was 4s at ISO 1600 and f5.  Mercury is about 2.5 degrees up.
 

Moon, Saturn, and Mercury Conjunction 11/30/2013

Mercury is on the lower left, above the treetops at magnitude -0.66 and 5 degrees above the horizon.  Saturn is the brighter object above and right at mag 0.57, with Alpha Librae at mag 2.75 immediately above & right.  The waning crescent Moon is 8.5% illuminated at 6:14 a.m.  The Moon and Mercury are 17 degrees apart.  You can see a smattering of other stars, mag 5 and brighter.

Photo Details: Nikon D7000 camera, Nikon VR 18-200 lens at 50mm, 2s at f4.8 (matrix metered) and ISO 400.

Saturn & Mercury Conjunction 11/27/2013

A two planet conjunction is somewhat interesting, but getting this shot let me confirm the direction and horizon for the Moon & planets shot Nov 30th.  Above was at 6:15 a.m. 11/27/13.  We live in an area with new construction going on, and they just put in a new street with no houses on it yet and no trees  So, temporarily, I have a pretty good horizon...  Looks like I can get down to 2 degrees or so above the horizon ESE if I play the trees perfectly.

Just Before Sunrise 11/30/2013

Here's a wide angle shot of my shooting location for the above pics.