Planetary conjunctions always give me great pleasure to watch (and shoot with a camera on tripod). We currently have an interesting event on the way, with Venus rising to meet Mercury and Jupiter sinking to join them.
At the same time, Mars and Saturn are also in the evening sky, making all five of the naked eye planets visible together. Not only that but they are all within 93° of each other, so I just managed to squeeze them all into one wide angle shot.
Whilst this wide angle sky image, which I took yesterday evening (11th August 2016), is hardly a spectacular looking astro-shot, if you enlarge it you will be able to see all of the five "naked eye" planets in one photograph, something I have never achieved previously.
Six out of eight planets if you include Earth
Diagonally, from bottom left to top right: Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, (Spica), (Moon), Mars, Saturn (Antares).
2016-08-11 Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Spica, Moon, Mars, Saturn & Antares.
Canon 60D on tripod, 10mm, 2.5 sec, ISO 320.
The following shot - of the approaching conjunction of Venus, Mercury and Jupiter - was taken a few days earlier, on 8th August 2016.
2016-08-08 Jupiter (top), Mercury & Venus (bottom).
Canon 60D on tripod, 50mm, 1.0 sec, ISO 320
With Venus rising, the angular distance between Venus and the other planets is narrowing daily and will soon merit attention with narrower field camera lenses.
Images © Roger Powell