SWNAplanets
This photo could be the first ever to capture all the planets in the solar system – and was taken from a field in Somerset.
The landmark image was snapped by a UK photographer during a rare planetary alignment.
Josh Dury, 27, captured the spectacle of the solar system’s planets aligning from the Somerset’s Mendips Hills on Saturday (22 Feb).
Experts have claimed it could be the first time all eight planets including Earth have been captured in a single image.
The unusual celestial event is known as a “planetary parade” Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – align in the night sky.
Josh said: “I managed to capture a panorama image of the seven planets, AKA – the planetary parade.
“It is made of nine images, revealing Saturn, Mercury and Neptune. However, 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 not easy to see at all.”
This is the last time such an alignment will be as visible from the UK until 2040.
The last planetary alignment was 1982 but at the time cameras didn’t have the ability to capture all of them.
One expert said they were not aware of any pictures showing all the planets in the same photo.
He added that until 2006 Pluto would be considered a planet but not be possible to capture in this way.
That means it’s possible that previous examples would be labelled as “almost all the planets”.
