Mercury and The Pleiades, 29th April 2022

[lukebl]

A lovely view of Mercury this evening, close to The Pleiades.

Mercury was at an altitude of around 7 degrees here, and about magnitude +0.4.

Canon 700d, 70-300mm zoom @ 110mm, f/5.6, 4 seconds, ISO800. Banham, Norfolk

[JOC]

That's lovely.  You've got the focus spot on too - I've taken some shots of stars with my camera and know how difficult it can be to get the stars as sharp as that.  The foreground trees and slight pinkness in the sky all make it quite atmospheric.

[lukebl]

9 hours ago, JOC said:

That's lovely.  You've got the focus spot on too - I've taken some shots of stars with my camera and know how difficult it can be to get the stars as sharp as that.  The foreground trees and slight pinkness in the sky all make it quite atmospheric.

Many thanks! There was some inevitable star trailing with 4 sec exposure on a fixed tripod, but I think it worked out quite well. I thought that the Pleiades would be lost in the horizon haze and high cloud, so was pleased that they were bright and clearly visible.