Venus (brightest) and Jupiter in close conjunction low at dawn on April 30, 2022, as shot from home in Alberta at 51° North latitude. The two planets were under 30 arc minutes apart this morning, about the diameter of the Moon. This is a single 2-second exposure with the RF70-200mm lens at 200mm and f/4 and the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 200.
Mercury (at right, below the Pleiades star cluster) in the spring evening sky during its best appearance for the year in the evening twilight. This was April 24, 2022, four days before its greatest eastern elongation (meaning it is east of the Sun, but in the western sky). The Hyades star cluster and the star Aldebaran are at upper left. Though the stars of Taurus are prominent, Mercury itself was over the constellation border in Aries this night. It was at magnitude -0.2, and was easily visible to the naked eye. This is a single 5-second exposure with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 64mm, and f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400. Taken from home in Alberta at latitude 51° N.
This is the much publicized "planet parade" or "planet alignment" of April 2022, with four planets across the dawn sky this day, April 24. But from my latitude of 51° N the dawn sky was getting very bright by the time the lowest planet, Jupiter, rose. Only Venus was easily visible to the eye, but the camera picked up the other three. Even so I had to emphasize their appearance with a soft glow around each planet to make them stand out. This is a single 0.8-second exposure with the Canon Ra at ISO 100 and Canon RF 28-70mm lens at f/4 and 35mm focal length. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
