A panorama of four planets in the twilight across the twilight sky, tracing the visible ecliptic in the sky. I shot this from the Great Sandhills, Saskatchewan, on August 13, 2018. From left (southeast) to right (southwest) they are: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus, below the waxing crescent Moon this evening. The line of planets nicely defines the arc of the ecliptic across the south, mirrored in the dark arc of blue caused by a band of smoke across the south, and the shadow of a crepuscular ray cast by the smoke, and also the blue arc of Earth’s shadow rising to the southeast near Mars. However, the arc of the ecliptic drawn by the Moon and planets isn’t perfect as the Moon was well above the ecliptic while Mars was well below the ecliptic. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn were all close to the ecliptic. Mars was just over two weeks past opposition, so it was rising in the twilight as Venus was setting, putting both above the horizon at once, with Jupiter and Saturn also well-placed to the south. However, the window of opportunity to shoot the panorama was only a few minutes long, between the time was dark enough to show faintest Saturn and before Venus set. It’s unusual to get such a line of bright planets across the sky at once. The Moon is a bonus! The location is the top of the major sand dune accessible at Great Sandhills in western Saskatchewan near Leader. This is a panorama cropped from 7 segments, each with the 35mm lens and Canon 6D MkII. Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw. PTGui worked OK as well, but still left some slight bright banding between segments. ACR did better here.
A panorama of twilight with the waxing Moon, Venus (below the Moon) and Jupiter (at left) in the evening sky, with a band of forest fire smoke darkening the sky. This was from Great Sandhills, Saskatchewan, from the main viewing access area south of Leader and Sceptre. This is a panorama of 4 segments, each segment an HDR blend of 7 exposures, all with Adobe Camera Raw. Shot with the 35mm lens and Canon 6D MkII. ON1 Dynamic Contrast filter applied to the ground.
