Sunday, January 5, 2014

Crescent Moon and Crescent Venus at Sunset

It's going to be -15°F on Tuesday, and we're supposed to have a snow storm all weekend. My camera attachment for my Orion EQ-1 mount came in the mail so I can finally set it up - but... it's freaking freezing out and I'm half sick.

sunset january 3 in Indiana
ISO 800, 53mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec

Pink and purple sunset with trees
ISO 800, 300mm, f/11, 1/50 sec

When I saw the crescent moon setting above some pink and purple clouds, I did take my camera and tripod out onto the balcony for a few shots. Can't waste this weather. Clear skies were a rare commodity in December.

I'm eager to try a "real" moon photo with my T5i, stacking in Registax from a fixed tripod. For now, I just have a few frames taken while the sky was still blue.

crescent moon january 3 2014
ISO 200, 300mm, f/11, 1/40 sec

crescent moon january 3 2014
Originally ISO 200, 300mm, f/11, 1/160 sec, brightened in Photoshop

artistic moon with jet contrail
Same image as above with the settings jacked up to look cool!

crescent venus with DSLR and 300mm lens
ISO 800, 300mm, f/11, 1/250 sec
I'm really surprised how clear Venus turned out! I didn't even recognize it at first, I saw a bunch of contrails and jets and then this white dot about to go behind the clouds. I figured it must be Venus because it has been extremely bright recently, but I never thought I'd be able to resolve the crescent shape with just my camera lens. Maybe it's sharper because of the high f-stop, or maybe it's just my first time shooting Venus with my higher resolution camera. Either way, this is pretty cool!

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