Friday, January 8, 2016

Venus, Saturn, and Crescent Moon January 7, 2016

I woke up to a great collection of Venus and Saturn in a fairly close pairing alongside the 7.6% crescent moon on Thursday, January 7, 2016. There wasn't much foreground scenery to speak of - just my neighbor's roofline - but the collection looked cool floating over the houses in the cool morning air. The clear sky was a welcomed sight since we've been having a very rainy winter so far.

january 2016 moon venus saturn
Single frame Canon T5i, ISO 1600, 125mm, f/4.5, 2.5 sec

january 2016 moon venus saturn
Single frame Canon T5i, ISO 800, 125mm, f/4.5, 2.5 sec

The bright grouping looked like a nice target to try some iPhone photos, so I got out my tripod and adapter and used both the default camera app and Night Cap Pro. Night Cap Pro is great for low light, but the moon and Venus were very bright in this shot. I do like how Night Cap Pro was able to show some scenery with the houses rather than just the moon and Venus.

planets and moon with iphone
iPhone 6 photo with Night Cap Pro app, ISO 2000, f/2.2, 4.2mm, 1/2 sec
dslr vs iphone
This is a comparison of the DSLR photo (above) to the iPhone 6 with default camera app (bottom) at f/2.2, 4.2mm, ISO 2000, 1/15 sec showing the crescent moon with earthshine, Saturn, and Venus clearly visible.
Between the two, I like the wider photo with houses for context even though the moon isn't properly exposed and turns into a large white blob. It's kinda cool. It looks like glowing orbs, UFOs, or just a huge star above the house. I try not to post too many photos straight out of the iPhone to Instagram because I know that they're just blobs - I get it - but it's fun to play with and test out what the iPhone camera is capable of without any fancy gadgets or attachments.

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