Venus & Jupiter Amid NLCs?
Taken by Alan Dyer on June 8, 2026 @
Near Drumheller, Alberta
Click photo for larger image
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 8
Exposure Time: 30/1
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 100
Date Taken: 2026:06:09 13:49:48
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Details:
This frames the fairly close conjunction of Venus (brightest) above Jupiter in the evening twilight of June 8, 2026. They were 1.75º apart this night.
They are below Pollux in Gemini, the bright star at top. Dim Mercury is also in the scene, very low at right just above the normal dark clouds.
However, the two bright planets are embedded in what look like glowing nocilucent clouds, as they appear bright and bluish, the characteristic of NLCs. If these are NLCs this was my first sighting of them this 2026 season which lasts from June through July at my latitude of 51º N in southern Alberta.
This was from the Horsethief Canyon Viewpoint overlooking the Badlands of the Red Deer River valley north of Drumheller, Alberta. This is looking northwest, with the lingering glow of sunset at right.
Technical:
This is a blend of exposures to capture the wide dynamic range of the scene:
- A stack of 4 x 60 seconds at f/4 for the dark ground
- A single 3-second exposure at f/4 for the bright sky
- plus another 3-second shot through a Maven Starwalker filter to add the slight glows to the planets to make them stand out.
All with the Nikon Z8 camera at ISO 100 and Nikkor S-line 24-120mm lens at 53mm, with the camera on an MSM Nomad tracker, with the tracker on for the sky images (to prevent trailing and to allow easier alignment of the filtered and non-filtered images), but with the tracker off for the ground images.
Photographer's website:
https://amazingsky.comin
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