Venus passing through the Pleiades

Every eight years the planet Venus can be seen moving through the Pleiades, and it has been doing just that over the last few days. The Pleiades are an open star cluster about 444 light years from Earth.

The key question was: will the skies be clear over London? Initially my hopes were low as the web site and app used by many astronomers, namely Clear Outside, predicted thick clouds. However the sky was wonderful clear and managed to get this shot:

The planet Venus in the Pleiades

This photo was taken with a Sony A7iii using the 70-300mm lens at its full extent, f/5.6, iSO-6400 for 1/4 second.

Next time Venus will travel through the Pleiades will be in 2028… how will things be different then?