Photographer Captures All Seven Planets Visible in the Night Sky
Yesterday, PetaPixel reported on a rare planetary parade that won’t appear again for years and one photographer has already captured all seven worlds in a single image.
Josh Dury managed to train his lens on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune from Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.
“Now that Mercury has passed our side of the Sun, it is just about visible low on the western horizon,” Dury explains. However, while some of the planets, like Venus and Jupiter, are easy to spot and photograph, some of the others require skill and long exposure times.
“The main challenge was to capture the planets closest to the Sun: Mercury and Saturn,” Dury tells PetaPixel. “A high dynamic range image (HDR) had to be applied to one pane of the panorama on the far right.”
To document all seven planets, Dury has to stitch an ultra-wide panoramic image. He used the Sellarium app to identify Uranus and Neptune which were faint among other stars in the night sky; they both required longer exposure times and a higher ISO to resolve the two outermost planets in the solar system.
Dury used a Sony A7S II with a Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye attached to capture the image. He took the photo a few days ago on February 22 but astronomers say this week is the best time to see all seven planets.
Dr Edward Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, tells the BBC that it is a “rare opportunity to have seven planets in essentially a convenient place for you to look for them.”
“You really only have a few minutes after sunset to catch them before they drop below the horizon,” he adds. “After that, you’ll still be able to see Venus, Jupiter, and Mars clearly for a much longer time.
If you are planning on getting out to shoot this week then why not check out PetaPixel’s astrophotography guide.
More of Dury’s work can be found on his website, Instagram, Facebook, and X.
Image credits: Photographs by Josh Dury.
