For the last couple of weeks, we were lucky to see a relatively rare phenomenon in the night sky. Venus and Jupiter were dancing in the sky, getting closer and closer as if they were flirting. Their “kiss,” or the conjunction, took place on March 2 and it was a real treat for astrophotographers and stargazers.
Indian photographer Soumyadeep Mukherjee captured the whole process in a marvelous set of photos. He turned it into a collage that shows us the dance of Venus and Jupiter, one step at a time.
I was treated by the two planets glowing in the sky only when they started making a close approach. After that, we had two and a half weeks of clouds, all day and all night. That’s why I was especially thrilled to see Soumyadeep’s collage and discover what the whole process looked like.
The planets’ close approach started on February 21 and ended on March 2. Soumyadeep recorded it from Dhanbad, India using a Nikon D5600, Sigma 50mm lens, and a Benro Rhino Tripod for each of the images. “The aperture was maintained at f/2.8 and ISO was kept at 200 for all the images,” the photographer explains. “Shutter speed varied from 1/3 seconds to 1 second, depending on the lighting condition.”
Soumyadeep took all of the photos at a similar time, between 6:10 PM and 6:20 PM IST. What he finds interesting, and what I noticed as well, is the changing hue of the sky after sunset. As the photographer notices, it really adds a lot to the final image, and I completely agree.
Here is the gorgeous collage once again if you, like me, missed the celestial event due to cloudy skies. The next one that will be this bright and spectacular will take place in 2039, so let’s hope for clear skies then. :) Make sure to follow Soumyadeep on Instagram and enjoy his beautiful photos.
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