The Planetary Alignment on the 25th February from my backyard in Perth, Scotland
Viewing and imaging the Planets
What a sight we have in Scotland’s dark night skies right now, with multiple planets on display, some of them being imagable. (This should also be viewable from most places in the world). What the media doesn't explain is that some are not exactly going to be naked eye visible. Technically speaking we can ‘see’ seven planets right now - Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, and Saturn, will all be briefly visible in the early evening south facing sky. In this image, we can see the faint milky way arcing across the centre of the image up to the top right. This is as you can imagine, an extremely densely packed area of stars. The dark grey patches on the right of the image are caused by interstellar dust blocking our view of the stars behind it. This is why here the image appears to be void of stars and takes on a patchy appearance.
In the night sky the planets follow a curve in the sky that matches the sun, called the ecliptic. (Think of this like the plane of our solar system). Above the milky way areas at the top left, we can see the planet Mars in the constellation of Gemini with the supermassive stars Castor and Pollox to it’s left, then Jupiter on the right above the "V" shaped constellation of Taurus (You can see the arc of the ecliptic I mentioned earlier by simply joining the dots here). As you can see, the recognisable Orion is nicely nestled between the houses too at the very bottom. Uranus is just below pleiades (the blue star cluster on the right) however it is too tiny and faint to see unless viewed on a magnified version of this image, or with a telescope / binoculars in very dark skies or with someone in ultra dark skies, who has good conditions with perfect eyesight. Even then, it will appear as a small dot in our vision. If we could pan right from this image (which would be looking west, out of shot), we could see Venus on the lower horizon and Saturn not far away.
Our eyes can interpret only 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because of this, the reality is, we see next to nothing of our beautiful cosmos, however we can begin to see a glimpse if we try to adapt our eyes for the night. In this game, it is best to leave misconceptions about our own eyes being truth-seers at the door and open our minds to what could be out there, and what is out there when we observe the night sky.
Dark Adaption
It takes the average human eyes about 45 minutes to become dark adapted at night, however studies show that improvements in night vision can occur for up to two hours! Any artificial light immediately damages any adaption our eyes have made and we have the start the clock again. So get off your phone! We don’t see much at all at first when looking up at the night sky. However, our eyes are capable of seeing fainter starlight, planets or aurora if we allow them time to adapt to the darkness. The purkinje effect describes the situation in human vision: as light levels decrease, the perception of warm colour drops, especially the red end of the spectrum. It is very important to observe the night sky with dark adapted eyes for this reason. To properly have our eyes adjusted for light levels this low, one must observe for at least 30 minutes and avoid all forms of artificial light during that time. This is a much longer time than most people give it. This is why many struggle to see colour in the night sky. Contrary to popular opinion, stars are not just little white dots floating out in space. Here is a picture showing the variation in star colours and planets shot recently showing the alignment from a rural setting:
The Planet Parade over Scotland, 1st March 2025. This image is a huge mosaic spanning a field of view over 200 degrees. It was made with a Tamron 35mm f/1.4 Di USD lens. Top left: Mars, centre: Jupiter, and lower right horizon: Venus. (Pinch-zoom on mobile to see details)
About the Image and How to Find the Planets
I am lucky to stay in a place where light pollution is less than in most residential places, relatively speaking. The camera and lens used to take this are extremely powerful equipment. The headline picture in this article is made up of about 10 seperate images and took me hours to painstakingly join them all together to produce this final result. To form this image, I used a Star Adventurer Star Tracker and a Nikon Z8 camera. The lens I used was a state of the art Tamron 35mm f/1.4 Di USD, wide open at f/1.4. Each exposure was 30 seconds, set at ISO 64. I then took a series of images to form a panoramic of the ground with the star tracker off to get this final picture you see here. Weather permitting I hope to see and image this again from a rural perspective tomorrow night (Thursday the 27th February 2025), and if not, it looks like I might get a chance somewhere rural on the Saturday of this week. You will of course still be able to see most of these planets like this for the next week or so. The best two to see in my opinion are shown here, which is why I concentrated on this part of the sky, rather than making a ultra massive, wide panoramic image and everything then becoming lost within the wideness of the vista. Mars on the left side is particularly interesting. If you let your eyes adjust and become properly dark adapted, you will easily see it’s glowing orange colour. I find it fascinating to let my vision slowly adjust, so much that I can discern planet or star colour. That’s pretty amazing I think.(Remember, darker skies will greatly help here). This process is obviously helped by being in darker skies, away from streetlights and the further from any towns or cities, the better. As mentioned, my advice is to go somewhere as dark as possible to increase your chances, and to always allow your eyes to become properly dark adapted. This alignment is best seen early evening just after sun set, in the south facing sky, extending west through east. (Consider that this image is looking practically directly south). This alignment of the seven planets will not be seen simultaneously so well until 2040. If you can visit an observatory under clear skies, or can go somewhere rural with your naked eyes, or a telescope / binoculars, you are in for a treat. Good luck if you are out hunting.
NB: On mobile, pinch zoom on the image to see closer details. On desktop, click the image for a larger view. If you check my instagram you will be able to see a video demonstrating this all here.
Steve
Tracked Sky Image earlier in evening with Nikon 14-24/2.8S lens at 14mm. Mars is on the left next to the blue/white stars Castor and Pollox in Gemini, to the right the white blob is Jupiter, found in the ‘V’ shaped Taurus Constellation
Sigma 14mm 1.8 Art lens with Nikon D810. A 114 degree field of view of the spectacle