Planetary Parade: Undoubtedly, the most significant achievement for photographer Josh Dury, 27, has been capturing the first image consisting of all the seven planets along with Earth in a single frame by a person. Believed to be captured with the rare alignment event called “great planetary parade”, which occurs whenever all eight planets come together in one term-phenomenon’-“gravitationally bound to one another.
How did he manage to capture it?
To capture this trio of elusive Mercury – Saturn – Neptune, Mr. Dury applied a very specialized process. He stitched together many panes into a panorama. For the specific pane for these three – he took a dual-exposure approach: one was the base exposure, the other was increased exposure and ISO-for the purposes of coaxing out the faint light from the dimmer planets.
When he matched the image for their positions using plain sphere maps, Dury’s camera of choice for this impressive photo was the Sony A7S II, typically coupled with a Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye lens.

Mr Dury told The Telegraph: “I managed to capture a panorama image of the seven planets, AKA – the planetary parade, which is made of nine images, revealing Saturn, Mercury and Neptune. They were very tricky to spot. I used multiple image analysis and astronomy apps to confirm their location As this was taken with a wide-angle lens, the nine images stitched to a panorama and a HDR blend of one of the frames to reveal Saturn, Neptune and Mercury. These three planets are not easy to see at all.”
According to Mr. Dury, “Being close to the sun and trying to photograph them as soon as they looked sufficiently clear, the relative positions of these three planets are also slightly misaligned with respect to each other at this time due to their probative view from the imaging location and low western cloud.”
All About the Planetary Parade
The planetary parade, of which each has kept its huge celestial promise, is approaching a crescendo.
According to the definition of astronomers, the planetary alignment is said to be that phenomenon where several planets are on the same side of the Sun at the same time. These alignments can be from three planets to eight. While such minor alignments can be found quite frequently, the most exceptional phenomenon is when all the seven planets get into line; it is, therefore, a real rare celestial event.
On 28th Feb, there will be once in a lifetime event, when the entire planets of our solar system will be clearly visible in one moment during the night hours. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune made their appearances in the sky during January 21-29 and have, therefore, had their last sky appearance until 2040 when all seven planets with Mercury will once again unite.
Planetary parade: Visibility in India
The planetary alignment will also be visible throughout India. Most cities will witness this rare event. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus will be visible to the naked eye. However, to view Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune, you need a telescope because they are faint.
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