by After days of cloud in Rome, the sky has finally cleared for a “planetary parade”.
Virtual Telescope Project founder Gianluca Masi was ready with telescopes, cameras and broadcast equipment to observe the five planets with the naked eye on Wednesday evening (December 28). The easiest planets to see were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. He also spotted Uranus and Neptune, which require equipment to be seen.
“A very beautiful Christmas present from heaven,” Masi wrote. (opens in a new tab) of celestial sight. “I managed to capture some great images and share the view with the world.”
If you’re looking for binoculars or a telescope to view the planets of the solar system, our guides to the best binoculars and the best telescopes have options that can help. If you need photography gear, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and our best lenses for astrophotography to prepare you for the next planet sight.
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Masi captured all five planets in a single view using a panoramic “fish-eye” lens, which gives a 180-degree field of view of the sky. He also installed several zoom lenses on a telescope mounted on the roof of his house in Rome.
Mercury’s transience was the biggest challenge as it quickly fades in a bright twilight sky, but Masi managed to capture it through the fish-eye lens. Zooming was easier, he said, “because I could select the best camera/lens settings for each planet.”
Masi captured Venus and Mercury together, “showing in such a colorful sky just above the SW (southwest) horizon”. Then he crossed the sky, capturing each of the planets in turn and even imagining the other two only visible in a telescope or powerful binoculars: Uranus and Neptune. You can see the entire “parade” in the gallery above.
“I’m already looking forward to the next cosmic spectacle to bring to our community,” Masi said; its next broadcast will be a preview of the Quadrantid meteor shower which peaks on Jan. 4, unfortunately during a very bright, near-full moon. But if you miss it, there will be more meteor showers in 2023 that will surely produce amazing shooting stars.
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “Why am I taller (opens in a new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in a new tab). Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).
