Interesting Photo of the Day: 6 Planets in One Image

Interesting Photos

Astronomers and astrophotographers are excited about a rare event taking place right now: for the first time since 2005, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen together in the night sky. The visible alignment of these five planets will continue until February 20, so if you haven’t already, grab your camera and get out there before it’s too late! Photographer Greg Hogan was lucky enough to capture the event, adding Earth into the shot to come up with an image of six planets:

Six planets in one image by Greg Hogan (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

Hogan drove out to Oakey Woods, Central Georgia about 45 minutes away from city lights to get the shot, which was captured on January 24, 2016 at about 6:45am EST. He used a Canon 7D and a 8mm fisheye lens with a 10 second exposure at ISO400.

Apparently, he ran into a little issue with Mercury, which was overexposing on the horizon, so he used Lightroom’s gradient exposure tool to bring down the exposure and let Mercury show more. He also used the free program Stellarium and Skyguide App to know exactly where to look in the sky.