The ISS was the opening act

 Last night during Nautical Twilight (about 8:40 pm MDT) the International Space Station (ISS) made a highly visible pass over Creede, moving from SE to NE.  The sky was too bright for a long exposure, but I was able to capture it with a few short exposures.  

 

ISS over Snowshoe Mountain.  1.3-sec exposure.

About 30 minutes later Jupiter and Venus were shining brightly over the Bristol Head ridgeline during the onset of astronomical twilight.

Lens: Lumix 20mm f/1.7 + Hoya Sparkle-6 filter

 After Venus set, Jupiter was the brightest object in the sky:

Lumix 20mm + Sparkle-6 filter

 

Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 + softon filter

In this image, Pollux and Castor are to the right above Jupiter,  Procyon is to the lower left, and the "Beehive Cluster" (M44) is at the top of the frame.

 

Auriga setting over Bristol Head.  Lumix 20mm + sparkle filter

Corona Borealis.  Leica 25mm + softon filter

In this image of the constellation Corona Borealis, the dotted circle marks the location of the recurrent nova T CrB.  This star is currently at magnitude 10.1, but when (or if) it erupts again, it is expected to increase in brightness by a factor of a thousand, or more.  Of course, as the SEC warns, "past performance does not guarantee future results". 

The measured sky brightness at the conclusion of this outing (about 10 pm) was 21.62 mpsas, a very good (meaning very dark) value.