Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury in one frame: an evening sky over Mangaldai, Assam

Photograph: © Pranabesh Barman, Mangaldai, Darrang district, Assam

About forty minutes after sunset, the western sky over Mangaldai still had an orange glow near the trees, fading to deep blue overhead. Four objects ran down that sky in an almost straight line. A thin crescent Moon was at the top, then a very bright Venus, then Jupiter, and Mercury sat lowest, just above the floodlight towers on the horizon. They fitted into one upright frame.

Planets often appear in pairs. Seeing four together with the Moon, and in a clear line, is much less common. This article explains what the photograph shows, how the date can be worked out from the sky itself, why the planets line up like this, and how to photograph a similar scene.

What the photograph shows

From the bottom of the frame upwards:

• The horizon. Trees and several floodlight towers stand as dark shapes against the twilight. The orange band just above them is the last sunlight scattered through the lower atmosphere.
• Mercury. A small, faint point in the orange part of the sky, lower right. It is the hardest of the four to find.
• Jupiter. A clear bright point above Mercury, where the sky turns from orange to blue.
• Pollux. Not labelled in the photograph. It is the faint point at the far right edge, at the same height as Jupiter. Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation Gemini.
• Venus. The brightest point after the Moon, near the middle of the frame. It sits next to wisps of high cloud lit with a soft pink.
• The waxing crescent Moon. Upper left. The bright crescent is overexposed. The rest of the Moon’s disc shows a faint glow, known as earthshine, explained below.

Working out the date from the sky

The image files had no camera data. That is common with photos shared online, because many websites and apps strip it out. The sky can still give a date. Planets move against the stars at different speeds, so their spacing on any one evening is close to unique.

The positions of the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury were calculated as seen from Mangaldai (about 26.4° N, 92.0° E). They match the photograph on the evening of 18 June 2026. That evening the angular gaps were roughly:

Pair	Angular separation (calculated)
Moon to Venus	about 8.8°
Venus to Jupiter	about 8.5°
Jupiter to Mercury	about 5.9°

The gaps in the photograph are in almost exactly the same proportion. A day earlier, the Moon was much closer to Venus (under 5°). A day later it had moved more than 20° away. Sunset at Mangaldai that day was at about 6:14 pm IST, so the photograph was probably taken at around 6:50–7:00 pm. By then the sun was about 8° below the horizon. Astronomy guides for that week describe the same evening line-up: Mercury lowest, then Jupiter, Venus and the Moon.

As a rough rule, one degree is about the width of your little finger at arm’s length. The four objects stretched across about 23° of sky. That is a little more than the span of an outstretched hand, held twice.

Why the planets line up

The planets and the Moon all orbit in nearly the same flat plane. From Earth that plane appears as a line across the sky, called the ecliptic. It is also the path the sun follows through the year. Whenever several planets are visible together, they lie along this line. That is why the photograph shows a near-straight diagonal rather than a random scatter.

At dusk in June the ecliptic slopes steeply above the western horizon, as seen from Assam’s latitude. That steep angle stacks the objects almost vertically. It is also why a portrait (upright) frame fits the scene better than a landscape one.

The planets are not physically close to each other. Venus was the nearest planet that evening, and Jupiter was many times further away. They only look close because they are in the same direction.

The four objects, one by one

The crescent Moon

The new moon fell on 15 June 2026. By the evening of 18 June the Moon was about three and a half days old, with roughly 17% of its face lit.

The faint glow across the dark part of the Moon is earthshine. Sunlight reflects off Earth, especially from clouds and oceans, reaches the unlit side of the Moon, and bounces back. It shows best on thin crescents in twilight, because the bright part is small and the sky is not yet fully dark. Leonardo da Vinci described it in the early 1500s, so it is sometimes called the “da Vinci glow”.

Venus

After the Moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in the night sky. That evening it was about magnitude −3.9. On the astronomical magnitude scale, a lower number means brighter. Thick clouds of sulphuric acid reflect most of the sunlight that reaches Venus, which is why it shines so strongly. In June 2026 it was the evening star, the first point of light most people noticed after sunset.

Jupiter

Jupiter was at about magnitude −1.7: fainter than Venus but brighter than any star in that part of the sky. Earlier in the month, around 9 June, Venus and Jupiter had their closest approach of the year, less than 2° apart. By 18 June they had moved apart to about 8.5°. Viewed through binoculars on a steady support, Jupiter’s four largest moons can often be seen as tiny points beside it.

Mercury

Mercury is the hardest planet to see. It orbits close to the sun and never gets far from it in our sky. It shows only low in twilight, for a few weeks at a time. On 15 June 2026 it reached greatest eastern elongation, its widest separation from the sun on that evening run, at about 24.5°. By 18 June it was about magnitude +0.7 and starting to fade. It sat low in the orange glow, which is exactly where the photograph finds it. Many people go years without knowingly seeing Mercury. Gatherings like this make it easier, because the brighter planets lead the eye down to it.

The colours of the sky

The orange near the horizon and the blue overhead have the same cause. Sunlight passing through air is scattered, and blue light scatters most. Low in the sky, light travels through much more air. Most of the blue is scattered away before it reaches you, which leaves the orange and red. Higher up, the light passes through less air, and the scattered blue light dominates.

The high, wispy clouds near Venus and the Moon look pink. Clouds that high still catch sunlight for some time after it has left the ground. They go from pink to grey as the twilight fades.

How to photograph a planetary gathering

The photographer’s camera settings are not available for this image. The advice below is general guidance for scenes like this.

Plan the time. The best window is usually 25–50 minutes after sunset. Too early, and Mercury and Jupiter are lost in the bright sky. Too late, and the lowest objects have set. Free planetarium software such as Stellarium shows where each planet will be for your location.

Find a low western horizon. A playground, a riverbank or a rooftop with a clear view west works well. Some foreground, such as trees, towers or a building outline, gives scale and shows where the picture was taken.

Use a tripod. At dusk you will need exposures of a second or more. Holding the camera by hand will blur the points of light.

Use manual exposure. The camera’s meter tends to brighten the twilight too much and overexpose the Moon. Start at about f/4, a shutter speed of 1–2 seconds and ISO 800–1600. Check the screen and adjust. Keep the shutter short enough that the planets stay as sharp points. With most standard lenses, a few seconds is safe.

Focus manually on Venus. Zoom in on Venus on the screen and turn the focus ring until it is the smallest, sharpest point you can get.

Frame upright. In June the line of planets runs almost vertically, so a portrait frame keeps all four objects and the horizon in view.

Expect the Moon to burn out. A crescent Moon is far brighter than the planets. If you expose for Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, the Moon will be overexposed. That is normal. If you want detail on the Moon, take a second, shorter exposure and blend the two. Say so in your caption if you do.

Add a labelled version. Many readers can’t tell a planet from a star. A second copy with simple labels, like the one shared here, helps them identify what they are seeing. Keep the original unlabelled photograph as well.

Watching the sky from Assam

Clear western skies at the start of the monsoon are not guaranteed in Assam, so evenings like this are worth taking when they come. You don’t need a telescope. Your eyes are enough for the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, and binoculars help with Mercury. Planetarium apps and monthly sky guides announce these gatherings in advance. The planets will line up again along the ecliptic in different combinations over the coming years.