Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Luna's Sisters

Tonight the cresent Moon and the Pleiades were in conjunction - a beautful sight for sure. I haven't seen this since the seventies. Here are a few shots taken from the backyard. Strong afternoon winds kicked up a lot of dust into the atmosphere - combined with the low altitude of the event - the overexposed sunlit limb of the 12% illuminated moon made for an impressive halo.






Exposure data: Canon 400mm F/2.8L IS lens @ F/5.6 | Canon EOS 1D MKIIN | ISO 200 | shutter - 8.5 to 14 seconds | Takahashi EM200 Mount

2 comments:

Jim said...

Cool shots! Some HDR combinations? We were too busy observing to get a good look at the conjunction. But you'll be glad to hear we didn't break the telescope yet.... :-)

Anonymous said...

Shot the event as well from my driveway. I had to deal with an even denser haze layer, actually volcanic smog, locally called VOG, in the way. The result was at least interesting, but the stars are even fainter compared to the Moon.

Worth photographing! Your shorts show me what I could have gotten without the VOG to deal with. Thanks!