Venus and Jupiter have put on quite a show for skywatchers in recent weeks.
The two planets have been shining brightly in the early evening sky for several weeks, and in recent days they have come closer together in the night sky. On Wednesday March 1, the couple made their closest approach to each other while entering into an arrangement known as conjunction, meaning they shared the same right ascension, the celestial equivalent of longitude.
As Jupiter And Venus have begun to come closer over the past few weeks, astrophotographers around the world have begun capturing the celestial dance the two planets have engaged in. A stunning image submitted by Soumyadeep Mukherjee from Dhanbad, India shows what the photographer calls “10 days of closeness”. between the two planets, from February 21 to March 2, 2023.
Related: Don’t miss Venus and Jupiter shining very close in the night sky. They won’t be closer until 2032!
Mukherjee took the photographs that make up this 10-image collage using a Nikon D5600 camera fitted with a Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art lens. Post-processing was done in Adobe Photoshop.
In an email to Space.com, Mukherjee described his process for taking the photographs that make up the collage:
“For the past few weeks, Venus and Jupiter have been catching the attention of astrophotographers! They were approaching each other, slowly but surely. I was lucky enough to capture their relative motion over the past 10 days. another interesting find for me.The changing hues of the sky after sunset add a lot to the final image.
Aperture was held at f/2.8 and ISO was held at 200 for all frames. Shutter speed ranged from 1/3 second to 1 second, depending on lighting conditions. All images were taken at the same time, between 6:10 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. India Standard Time.”
Mukherjee has been an amateur astrophotographer since 2020 and is part of a group known as the Bangla Astronomads who “work to popularize astrophotography in India,” the photographer told Space.com.
Be sure to check out more of Soumyadeep Mukherjee’s work on Instagram (opens in a new tab).
If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of the next close encounter between Venus and Jupiter or any other celestial event, our guides to the best telescopes And best binoculars are a great starting point.
And if you’re looking to take your own gorgeous photos of the night sky, check out our guide to How to photograph the moonas well as our best cameras for astrophotography And best lenses for astrophotography.
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