For many who live in colder regions, February isn’t typically a time of celebration — but this year, skywatchers have been thrilled by a rare astronomical event.
Earlier in 2025, those looking up at the sky have been treated to a spectacular sight known as a “planetary parade,” where Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all seem to line up in a breathtaking display.
A determined photographer, however, has reportedly succeeded in capturing this rare event.
Experts believe that the image might be the first ever to include all eight planets, even Earth, in a single shot.
Josh Dury, a 27-year-old photographer, took this remarkable photo from the Mendips Hills near Bristol on February 22.
“I managed to capture a panorama image of the seven planets, AKA – the planetary parade,” Dury told SWNS. “It is made of nine images, revealing Saturn, Mercury and Neptune.”
“However, they were very tricky to spot. I used multiple image analysis and astronomy apps to confirm their location,” he explained.
“Since this was taken with a wide-angle lens, I stitched the nine images together into a panorama and used HDR blending on one of the frames to highlight Saturn, Neptune, and Mercury.”
“These three planets are not easy to see at all.”
While alignments of the planets have occurred in the past, they were never captured in the way this one was — especially when camera technology wasn’t advanced enough to record such a sight.
As noted by SWNS, one expert suggested that the reason this recent feat wasn’t accomplished earlier is that until 2006, Pluto was still considered a planet. The distant dwarf planet would have made it impossible to fit all the planets into one frame, they said.
{Matzav.com}