A line-up across the southwestern sky on December 5, 2021, consisting of (L to R): Jupiter, Saturn and Venus (brightest), with Jupiter and Saturn in Capricornus, with its stars all visible here though dim in the twilight. The three planets are nicely equally spaced here. Such an array makes the ecliptic line visible. This is a blend of 3 exposures: 20s, 13s, and 8s to retain details and colours in the brightest part of the twilight sky at right, all at f/5.6 and ISO 400 with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at 31mm and Canon EOS Ra. Taken in "blue hour." A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI. The 3 images were masked initially with ADP Pro but I then painted the masked manually to eliminate most of the sky from the shorter exposures leaving just the brightest part of the sunset glow without stars, so avoid multiple star images from the untracked camera. This is the version with lines and labels added in to mark the ecliptic and constellation pattern. A version is available without overlays.
A line-up across the southwestern sky on December 5, 2021, consisting of (L to R): Jupiter, Saturn and Venus (brightest), with Jupiter and Saturn in Capricornus, with its stars all visible here though dim in the twilight. The three planets are nicely equally spaced here. Such an array makes the ecliptic line visible. This is a blend of 3 exposures: 20s, 13s, and 8s to retain details and colours in the brightest part of the twilight sky at right, all at f/5.6 and ISO 400 with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at 31mm and Canon EOS Ra. Taken in "blue hour." A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI. The 3 images were masked initially with ADP Pro but I then painted the masked manually to eliminate most of the sky from the shorter exposures leaving just the brightest part of the sunset glow without stars, so avoid multiple star images from the untracked camera. A version of this is available with lines and labels added in to mark the ecliptic and constellation pattern.
The conjunction of bright Venus (then approaching its greatest elongation from the Sun two weeks later) above dimmer redder Antares in Scorpius on the evening of October 16, 2021. The two objects were 1.5° apart this evening, but from my latitude of 51° N were low in the southwest embedded in the bright twilight. This is a single 1.3-second exposure with the 24-105mm lens and the Canon Ra in 1.6x cropped-frame mode for an effective focal length of 170mm. Shot from home in Alberta. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with Astronomy Tools actions.
