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An astrophotographer capture a beautiful mental picture of two planets aligned in the sky above Rome — and a piddling rain did n’t stop him .
Gianluca Masi spotted Venus and Jupiter hiding behind a tenuous cloud shortly after scurry a planned livestream of the conjunction Sunday ( May 1 ) on his astronomy broadcast divine service , the Virtual Telescope Project .
Venus (lower left) and Jupiter during a close conjunction over Rome on 31 March 2025.
" Luckily , I had my mental imagery gear quick to go on a sturdy tripod , when suddenly I could spot the undimmed planetary couple through a less dense layer of clouds , " Masi tell Live Science , bring he could even see three of Jupiter ’s moons — Europa , Ganymede and Callisto .
But a showery fillip came as he front at the planets . " I noticed a colored corona around Venus . That was due to diffraction of its light by individual small water droplets . So that fragile swarm was valued , " he tell .
Masi estimated the two major planet were roughly 21 arcminutes apart at the time of the shot , as close together as two - thirds of the angular size of it of the moon . " I used a Canon 5D differentiate IV body + EF 70 - 200 mm f/2.8L IS II USM , working at 200mm - f/2.8 . I worked at 400 ISO and the vulnerability time was 0.8 second , " he said .
Masi was working from home base at the time , in a chimney - dotted view from his balcony on the west side of Rome . He plans to go to a " scenic locating " in June , however , whenfive planet at oncewill be seeable in the sky , to fascinate the event on a livestream . ( That ’s of course assuming the atmospheric condition improves . )
" I have it off these raw events ; they always amaze us , " Masi say . " I ’m always amazed to see how many people from all around the planet have a go at it these kind of opinion . I always invite them to go out and see these kind of things personally , but I know that for many people my springy feed are the only opportunity to see those cosmic shows . "
Masi added his mission is to share the beauty of the sky with those subsist on the same planet as he . " This is the basic idea of the Virtual Telescope Project . "
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