Visible Ecliptic at Dawn
Taken by Alan Dyer on November 14, 2015 @
Gleichen, Alberta
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D810A
Exposure Time: 20/1
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 1000
Date Taken: 2015:11:14 12:50:24
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Details:
This was the view on the morning of November 14, of the three dawn planets lined up along the ecliptic, with the stars Spica and Regulus also defining this imaginary line.
The ecliptic is the Earth’s orbital path around the Sun projected into the sky. So it is along this line that we see the Sun appear to move around the sky over a year. But it is also the path along which we find the seven other major planets – in this case, three of them: Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
These three worlds were clustered together in October, but are now spreading out along the ecliptic, as Venus drops lower but Mars and Jupiter climb higher.
The stars Spica and Regulus also lie along the ecliptic, where the Moon can occasionally pass in front of, or occult, these stars.
So the two stars and three planets are now nicely drawing the ecliptic line for us in the dawn sky. At this time of year, the ecliptic is also steeply angled above the eastern horizon.
The main image is a stack of 4 x 20 second exposures for the ground, to smooth noise, and one 20-second exposure for the sky, all with the Nikon D810a at ISO 1000 and Nikkor 14-24mm lens at f/2.8 and at 14mm. The second image is the same but at 24mm focal length to frame the planets. Labels and lines added in Photoshop of course!
Photographer's website:
http://www.amazingsky.net
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