All the planets imaged within 4 hrs!

StephenM (Stephen) · #1 07-08-2010, 11:06 PM

Hi all,

Inspired by Okiscopey's thread here, I decided to have a go at capturing all the planets in one evening. I did it within 4 hrs without too much trouble, and as Mike suggests in the above thread, this must be a fairly rare occurrence.

The first image shows Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury above the Brisbane skyline at 6:12 pm. With the help of Stellarium I tracked down Neptune at 9:47pm (second image), and then a few minutes later got Jupiter (with its 4 Moons) and Uranus down near the horizon (3rd image).
I'm glad the IAU have downgraded Pluto's status, because that would have been well beyond reach of my tripod-mounted dSLR!

Quite a fun little project

. Anyone else planning to give it a go?

Cheers,
Stephen

renormalised (Carl) · #2 07-08-2010, 11:27 PM

Great shots, Stephen. Might give it a go myself

okiscopey (Mike) · #3 08-08-2010, 12:49 AM

Nice series of pictures Stephen!

luigi · #4 08-08-2010, 01:30 AM

Very nice series!
How did you manage to get the exposure for the very dim Neptune to ble able to locate it in the photo?

StephenM (Stephen) · #5 08-08-2010, 08:57 AM

Thanks Carl, Mike and Luis!

Quote:

Originally Posted by luigi

Very nice series!
How did you manage to get the exposure for the very dim Neptune to ble able to locate it in the photo?

I used my 70-300 lens on 70mm, pushed the iso up to 1600 and took some 10 sec exposures pointing it in the general direction of Neptune. Then using Stellarium I identified the position of Neptune. The image here is heavily cropped and I've adjusted the curves quite a bit to make Neptune more prominant.

Cheers,
Stephen

Shiraz (Ray) · #6 08-08-2010, 10:22 AM

really neat work Stephen. and as you note, the first image also shows part of the local planet, so you really did get em all.

Jen · #7 08-08-2010, 12:45 PM

nice little project there Stephen

hickny (Peter) · #8 08-08-2010, 03:24 PM

Stephen,
You are a LEGEND!!!
Well done.

What settings did you use for the Mercury, Venus, Mars & Saturn photograph?

hickny (Peter) · #9 08-08-2010, 03:32 PM

Just occurred to me that you photographed 8 planets!

StephenM (Stephen) · #10 08-08-2010, 09:04 PM

Thanks very much Ray, Jen and Peter!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hickny

What settings did you use for the Mercury, Venus, Mars & Saturn photograph?

Peter, this was a 15 sec exposure with an 18-50mm lens on 18mm, f/8 and 400 iso.

Cheers,
Stephen