A stunning dawn sky on the day of summer solstice. This is the array of four naked-eye planets at dawn on solstice morning, June 21, 2022, with Venus just right of centre low in the twilight; Mars and Jupiter at right; and Saturn at far right, plus the waning last quarter Moon below Jupiter. Unusually, the planets appear from east to west across the sky in the same order as they are in distance out from the Sun. As a bonus, an extensive display of noctilucent clouds appears at left in the northern sky over my house. The dawn twilight colours the sky at centre in the northeast. This was from home at latitude 51° North, where the bright sky and low altitude of the planets made it tough to capture them more distinctly. However, they were all easily visible to the naked eye. While Mercury was just rising at this time to the left and below of Venus, it does not appear here as it was too low and lost in the bright twilight. It was not visible in binoculars. This is a panorama of 13 segments, each 1-second exposures, with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at 28mm and f/2.8, with the Canon R5 at ISO 100. Stitched with Camera Raw. The original image is 35,200 pixels wide.
A panorama of NLCs – noctilucent clouds – aka PMCs or polar mesospheric clouds, taken on June 20, 2022 about 11:40 pm MDT, from home in southern Alberta. After many cloudy nights and some clear nights with no NLCs, this was my first sighting since June 1. The bright luminous mesospheric clouds lit by sunlight at high altitude contrast with the dark tropospheric clouds to the left at low altitude. The bright star Capella in Auriga, low in the north and circumpolar from my latitude of 51° N, is left of centre. The stars of Perseus are at upper right. This is a panorama cropped from 9 segments of 5-second exposures, with the RF24-105mm lens at f/4 and 80mm, and with the Canon R5 at ISO 400. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
The array of four naked-eye planets at dawn on June 16, 2022, from Venus at left low in the twilight; to Mars and Jupiter at left of centre; and Saturn at right of centre, plus the waning gibbous Moon at right. Unusually, the planets appear from east to west across the sky in the same order as they are in distance out from the Sun. This was from home at latitude 51° North, where the bright sky and low altitude of the planets made it tough to capture them more distinctly. However, they were all easily visible to the naked eye. While Mercury was just rising at this time to the left of Venus, it does not appear here as it was too low and lost in the horizon clouds. The old house is the original homestead house built by the CPR (the Canadian Pacific rail and steamship company) for the immigrant farmers the company was bringing over from Europe to settle the tracts of land the CPR was granted as part of the deal for building the first trans-Canada national railway. It has seen better days! This is a panorama of 12 segments, each 1-second, with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at 34mm and f/2.8, with the Canon R5 at ISO 200. Stitched with Camera Raw. The original image is 30,200 pixels wide.
