Late June Planetary Alignment

The planetary alignment visible in late June was (over)hyped as a rare must-see event, but in reality, was a difficult-to-see spread of the planets across over 100° across the sky.

On the morning of June 24, I was indeed able to visually see the entire alignment - Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. But the rising sun made it extremely difficult to locate Mercury and I had to know ahead of time exactly where Mercury would be relative to my local landscape. This was possible with the use of Stellarium combined with a 360° photograph of the horizon from my location. Photographically, because of the width of the scene, it was very difficult to capture all of the planets against the glare of the approaching sunrise. I used a 15mm fisheye lens on a full-frame Nikon D850 for this, and this lens distorts the image near the edges of the frame.

In the labeled image below, you'll have to take my word that all of the planets are there! Visually, it was easier to see than to photograph.

Planetary alignment as seen just before sunrise on 24 June 2022. Camera: Nikon D850 at ISO 1600 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens @ f/5.6, 1/8 second exposure. Click on the image to see an enlarged version.

Earlier in the evening, after Venus rose, but before Mercury did, the planetary spread was more apparent against a darker sky.

Planetary alignment just after Venus rose on 24 June 2022. Camera: Nikon D850 at ISO 1600 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens @ f/2.8, 4 second exposure. Click on the image to see an enlarged version.

At this time, I was taking a timelapse sequence and caught the International Space Station (ISS) crossing the sky.

The next morning (25 June), the ISS was visible in another pass, so I decided to try photographing it with real-time video. It took several minutes for the ISS to cross the sky and during that time the Moon also rose into view.

On 26 June, I decided to take a final closeup parting shot with Venus, Mercury, and the Moon in view. Mercury is the little dot just above the utility pole in on the horizon.

Closeup view of Venus, Mercury and Moon on 26 June 2022. Camera: Nikon D850 at ISO 800 with Tamron 28-75mm lens @ 75mm, f/2.8, 1/30 second exposure.