Planets January and February 2025

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
Lots of planets to look at or photograph if you have clear skies.
I added Neptune.

They will be lining up in February.

January 25, 2025
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February 03, 2025

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Dawg Pics

Senior Member
A quick trip with camera and tripod but it was absolutely freezing to hang about using the app to search for planets 🥶

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It is cold and damp here right now, but not that cold. I am just not used to cold weather any longer. I never was a fan of cold weather to begin with. Cool image.

According to Stellarium, this is where the planets are on Feb. 2nd. I don't know exactly what time your skies are dark enough to see all of them.
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Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I have now idea how the spikes appeared :unsure:. Maybe someone might know.
Looks like some kind of lens distortion. It is worse on the edges, which is what you expect in a wide angle lens. The spikes also change direction around the perimeter, which is also what you expect to see. Looks like your copy produces some spiking further into the image. It took me a couple minutes to locate a pattern that kind of looks similar to what you are getting. I am wondering if you have a bad copy of that lens. 🤔. If you point the lens directly at a bright star, do you get those diffraction looking spikes in the middle of the lens? I think the exagerated pattern on those very bright stars are just from the star being stretched out (coma) from being on the outer edge of the FOV. That is my best guess on what is going on here anyway. I make no guarantees regarding my amateur opinion about optics. 😉

Image below from https://www.lonelyspeck.com/a-pract...rations-and-the-lonely-speck-aberration-test/
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Peter7100

Senior Member
Looks like some kind of lens distortion. It is worse on the edges, which is what you expect in a wide angle lens. The spikes also change direction around the perimeter, which is also what you expect to see. Looks like your copy produces some spiking further into the image. It took me a couple minutes to locate a pattern that kind of looks similar to what you are getting. I am wondering if you have a bad copy of that lens. 🤔. If you point the lens directly at a bright star, do you get those diffraction looking spikes in the middle of the lens? I think the exagerated pattern on those very bright stars are just from the star being stretched out (coma) from being on the outer edge of the FOV. That is my best guess on what is going on here anyway. I make no guarantees regarding my amateur opinion about optics. 😉

Image below from https://www.lonelyspeck.com/a-pract...rations-and-the-lonely-speck-aberration-test/
View attachment 415113
Thanks for the reply. It is a fairly cheap lens I was using (Tokina 11-16) at 16mm on a Full Frame body, so your explanation is probably correct.
 
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