Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are all visible in the night sky – this is where to look and how to photograph them
(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
The lockdown is helping to create the best night skies for years. The lack of pollution from aircraft and cars, and a cut in light pollution from the vehicle headlights, has contributed to sparkling night skies in recent weeks. Either way, there hasn’t been a better week for decades to get out into your back garden (or poke a camera out a window) to capture some sparkling celestial events.
In the second of our five-part series on backyard astrophotography we are going to look at the planets.
Venus has been a sparkling sight for all of 2020 thus far, and this week it is almost at its very brightest, right after sunset, high in the west.
For early risers there’s a tempting parade of planets in the southeastern pre-dawn sky; Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Jupiter, on the far right, is the brightest, with Saturn slightly closer to it, and ruddy Mars to the left, closer to the horizon. Although it’s a stunning sight to see with the naked eye, a line of planets can look a little flat in a photograph.
However, dial-in something close to the ‘usual’ settings for a night sky photograph. ISO 800 is a good starting point because it will reveal stars without artificial light (pollution) creating too much image noise. You need to manually focus on infinity (use Live View if you have it, and set a manual exposure time of about 20-25 seconds.
Try framing them around a chimney pot or a TV aerial for a home-baked look.
Jamie has been writing about all aspects of technology for over 14 years, producing content for sites like TechRadar, T3, Forbes, Mashable, MSN, South China Morning Post, and BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus and BBC Sky At Night magazines.
As the editor for www.WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, he has a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise for all things astrophotography, from capturing the Perseid Meteor Shower, lunar eclipses and ring of fire eclipses, photographing the moon and blood moon and more.
He also brings a great deal of knowledge on action cameras, 360 cameras, AI cameras, camera backpacks, telescopes, gimbals, tripods and all manner of photography equipment.
