Thursday, February 4, 2016

Five Planets in the Morning Sky


Feb 4, 2016
I woke up about 5:30 a.m. to a windy, cold but clear morning. I quickly set up my camera on a tripod in front of my home, which thankfully blocked most of the cold wind. By 6:00 a.m. I could see Mercury to the lower left of brighter Venus, both near the brightening horizon. The moon, higher and to their right shown brilliantly. Saturn was a bit higher to the moon's right. A bit higher yet and next to the roof of the house sits Mars. On the other side of the peaked roof is blue Spica (not a planet) and to the far right next to the roof is giant Jupiter.

I had to shoot nine images side by side and with the format of the camera set vertical to grab all of the planets in this 90 degree field of view. I stitched all nine images using the free panoramic maker Image Composite Editor, by Mircosoft.


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