When Mars and Venus converged

On the western skies last Friday and Saturday (February 20th and 21st), at twilight, an unusual astronomical sight occurred.
Brilliant Venus and faint Mars paired remarkably close in the sky. 
On Friday evening, the crescent Moon joined them in a tight bunch, a beautiful sight. On Saturday Venus and Mars appeared even closer together, with the crescent Moon now looking down on them from above.
Seeing a pair of celestial objects appear close together in the sky is a wonderful phenomenon, which astronomers call a conjunction. This year should probably be called the 'Year of the Conjunctions.' In January, Venus and Mercury came together in the evening twilight.
On Saturday, Venus and Mars appeared 1/2° apart for viewers in North America, which is the width of a pencil held at arm's length.
Venus's dazzling white disk, shining at magnitude –3.9, is 12 arcseconds wide and gibbous in shape (88% illuminated), whereas peach-colored Mars is much dimmer, magnitude +1.2 or +1.3, and a tiny little shimmering blob just 4 arcseconds across.

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