Category: Planets - My Stardust Observatory

~ Beehive star cluster (M44) close to Venus in Cancer 22nd June 2026 ~

6/22/2026

What a beautiful sight it was after sunset this evening when the three planets of our Solar System aligned up together on the ecliptic in the western sky. Mercury is an elusive planet that keeps very close to the Sun, but you can see it quite clearly along with Jupiter then Venus.

Venus & Jupiter are at the moment in the constellation of Cancer with the pretty Beehive star cluster (M44) just below Venus.

Zooming in with my telephoto lens you can see this open star cluster clearly close to Venus in the night sky, it’s also known as Praesepe (Latin for ‘manger’ or crib).

There were a lot of people out working their dogs and I was able to show them this beautiful celestial show this evening :-D

~ Waxing crescent Moon above Venus & Jupiter on 18th June 2026 ~

6/18/2026

The waxing crescent Moon is now above Venus in the evening sky with Jupiter below Venus, Mercury is lower down but cannot be seen because of thick cloud.

Hopefully it will clear in the next couple of days so I can get another shot of capturing Mercury with the other planets. It’s been really exciting watching the dance of the planets on the ecliptic the Moon joining them was an extra treat :-D

Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod; both images were taken with an 8 second exposure and ISO 200.

~ Celestial display as crescent Moon joins Venus, Jupiter and Mercury on 17th June 2026 ~

6/17/2026

Crescent Moon Joins Planets

Oh my, how pretty it was this evening with the crescent Moon joining Venus, Jupiter and Mercury for a stunning celestial display in the western sky. The beautiful pink and purple colours of the sky after sunset just added another special magic to this wonderful event :- )

Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod; exposure times were 8 seconds and ISO200.

~ Mercury, Jupiter & Venus aligned together on ecliptic 16th June 2026 ~

6/16/2026

~ Starchart from Stellarium App ~

Oh how exciting! I didn’t have to drive up to Mt Tamborine to capture Mercury with Jupiter and Venus in the western sky, when I went outside this evening there it was above the roof tops just outside my front door…Woohoo :-D

Because of the light cloud in the sky you can also see a coloured corona around both Venus and Jupiter that looks quite pretty.

The light causes the halos from the planets and even though Jupiter is the largest planet it’s Venus that looks the brightest because it’s a lot closer to us here on Earth.

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens, the exposure time was 6 seconds and ISO 500.

I really like the purple colour of the sky after sunset, every time I take these sorts twilight images the sky is always a different colour.

~ Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on the ecliptic 12th June 2026 ~

6/12/2026

It’s been very frustrating trying to catch this special close conjunction between Venus and Jupiter, I missed the night of closest approach on the 10th June because of rain and since then I’ve been trying to capture a picture of them together again…

Tonight you can see that Venus has now passed Jupiter on the ecliptic and is above Jupiter, there is also on show a pretty coloured corona around each planet with Jupiter showing a couple of its moons.

I only had a few minutes to take these images as that rolling cloud on the right completely took the planets again, but I got my pictures :-D

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod. I use the excellent free Stellarium App to help me identify with the night sky.

~ Venus & Jupiter with halo of light surrounding the planets on 12th June 2026 ~

~ Venus & Jupiter now closer together in the western sky on 8th June 2026 ~

6/8/2026

I only just managed to capture Venus & Jupiter before the clouds came rolling in and it began to rain, as you can see the two planets are now getting closer for there conjunction together on the 10th June 2026. Both Venus & Jupiter are in the constellation of Gemini, Mercury is also in Gemini low on the horizon.

I’m really intrigued by the images on Spaceweather from people in the northern hemisphere, as the orientation of the planets on the ecliptic are seen differently then seen by me here in the southern hemisphere. It shows us that not everyone sees the same view of the night sky on planet Earth because of our longitude and latitude :-D

Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod, exposure time was 6 seconds and ISO500. Car headlights light up the tree in foreground; at this time of evening everyone is coming home from work.

Some of our images were linked on the front page of Spaceweasther.com including my image, to keep up with all the images being taken from around the world of this special event, please go to Spaceweather.com https://spaceweather.com/

https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=06&year=2026

~ Venus & Jupiter getting closer together in evening sky 4th June 2026 ~

6/4/2026

We had another one of our beautiful clear evenings for tonight’s viewing of Venus & Jupiter in the western sky. They are now getting closer and closer together.

A conjunction of these two planets happened way back in 2002 so it’s quite a rare event to witness, hopefully the weather will stay lovely and clear for the next few nights until the 10th June when the two planets will be at the closest to one another :-D

Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod, exposure times were 15 seconds for the wide field and 10 seconds for the close up of the planets.

~ Venus & Jupiter together in western sky in Gemini on 30th May 2026 ~

5/30/2026

The planets Venus and Jupiter are now getting closer and closer together for an amazing close conjunction on the 10th June 2026 from where I live here in Australia.

No matter where you live on Earth, you must go outside and have a look in the western sky, you will not be disappointed in the view :-D

I’ll be watching the sky and taking images whenever it’s clear enough to show how quickly Venus is moving along the ecliptic toward the largest planet in the solar system…there’s no chance of a collision as both planets are hundreds of thousands of kilometres away from one another.

Mercury will also join the group very low on the western horizon in early June but I’ll have to travel up to Mt Tamborine to capture this elusive planet, as it cannot be seen here where I live because of the mountains and trees.

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod; both images had an exposure of 6 seconds with ISO320 & ISO400.

~ Twilight sky with Venus, crescent Moon & Jupiter on 20th May 2026 ~

5/20/2026

~ Venus, Jupiter & Crescent Moon ~

It’s always so beautiful to see the Moon and planets together in a twilight coloured sky, this conjunction with the crescent Moon and Venus, then with the planet Jupiter has just been lovely to view over the last couple of nights.

The Orion constellation is now going down in the western sky, the Moon and Jupiter are both in the constellation of Gemini.

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera with a 28-400mm Tamron lens attached to a tripod.

~ Conjunction of Venus & crescent Moon in evening sky 19th May 2026 ~

5/19/2026

~ Venus & Moon Conjunction ~

After so many days of heavy rain the sky cleared enough to view this beautiful conjunction of Venus with a new 2-day-old crescent Moon in the early evening sky :- )

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and 28-400mm Tamron lens attached on a tripod.