I finally found this perfect place and a perfect timing to take this image. Although you can not see Uranus and Neptune here in yellow but you can use your imagination. The lineup of 7 planets coincides with their distances from the Sun. ~11.5% waning crescent moon sits between Venus and Uranus. Do not forget all the foreground are parts of planet Earth, that makes all eight planets are in this single frame of image. This image was taken with Canon 1Dx Mark II camera with Rokinon 14mm lens at f2.8. 14mm lens is perfect for this purpose. 12mm will give undesirable curvature distortion and 16mm will not fit both Mercury (lower left) and Saturn (upper right) in one frame. Mercury rose 4:19 am in this location and it took 20 minutes to rise over the hill. Borrego Springs is surrounded by higher mountain ranges in three direction except the East direction. Should the ecliptic line shift to the left, Mercury would be blocked by the mountain and it would be washed out when it rose over the mountain. Around 4:55m, Mercury was washed out by the Sun’s rays, so the window of time to capture this is only about 30 minutes.

Camera: Canon 1Dx Mark II, Lens: Rokinon 14mm 1:2.8 ED AS IF UMC, ISO 400, 2 second.

The image was process with Lightroom and labeled with Photoshop.