Venus-Mars-Jupiter Conjunction 1991

During the month of June 1991, three planets - Venus, Mars and Jupiter - were in conjunction in the Western sky just after sunset. As the month progressed the planets passed each other in succession. I photographed this ‘dance’ of theses planets on 17 days from June 5 through June 28 from my location in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey (Long: West 74º 33' 28.4", Lat: North 40º 22' 38.0"). This album presents the resulting photographs.

Cameras: Canon FTbN SLR and Canon TLb SLR.

Lenses: Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 and Canon FD 135mm f/2.5

Film: Kodak Kodacolor ASA 1600 color print film

The cameras were mounted on a stationary tripod. A shutter release cable was used to activate the shutter.

The resulting negatives were digitally scanned using a Nikon LS2000 film/slide scanner at 2700 ppi resolution. To improve signal-to-noise and decrease film grain, 2 frames were manually stacked for each image using Adobe Photoshop CS2. Minor adjustments to image brightness and color balance (to my liking) were performed with Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS6. In addition, some film defects and scratches were cloned out of the images using Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS6.

Image set 1 shows the images obtained using the Canon FD 50mm lens.

Image set 2 shows the images obtained using the Canon FD 135mm lens with one significant modification. In Adobe Photoshop CS2 the planets were cloned out of the images. These ‘minus planet’ images were then subtracted from the originals, resulting in final images showing only the three planets on a pure black background.

Image Exposure Times

Date Exposures (50mm) Exposures (135mm) June 5 1/4s, 1/2s June 6 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 7 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 8 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 9 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 10 1/8s, 1/4s June 12 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 13 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 14 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 15 1/4s, 1/2s 1/4s, 1/2s June 20 1/2s, 1s 1/8s, 1/4s June 21 1/2s, 1s 1/8s, 1/4s June 23 1/2s, 1s 1/4s, 1/2s June 24 1/2s, 1s 1/8s, 1/4s June 25 1/2s, 1s 1/8s, 1/4s June 26 1/4s, 1/2s 1/8s, 1/4s June 28 1s, 2s 1s, 2s

For reference when viewing the images, the largest/brightest object is Venus; the smallest/dimmest object is Mars; Jupiter is medium in size/brightness.

Image Set 1

Image Set 2