A close passage of Venus by the Pleiades star cluster (M45) on April 9, 2023. Venus was closer to the Pleiades the next night, but clouds prevented a

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A close passage of Venus by the Pleiades star cluster (M45) on April 9, 2023. Venus was closer to the Pleiades the next night, but clouds prevented a shot on April 10. But the night before closest approach was clear enough for long enough to get this shot of the bright planet and stars set in the deep blue twilight. This is a single 1-minute exposure with the RF70-200mm f/4 lens stopped down to f/5, yielding the diffraction spikes on Venus. On the Canon R5 at ISO 400, and on the Star Adventurer tracker. I reduced but did not eliminate the twilight sky gradient.

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Size: 8192px × 5464px
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 9, 2023, adventurer, amazing, april, astro, astronomical, astronomy, astrophotography, blue, burst, canon, cluster, conjunction, cosmos, diffraction, gradient, m45, planet, pleiades, r5, rf70-200mm, science, skies, sky, star, stars, starshrink, tracker, twiligtt, unique, venus, xterminator