Venus-Jupiter-Trifid Conjunction over Mt Warning

[CalvinKlein]

This image is of last nights conjunction between Jupiter and Venus, as well as the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, as they set over Mt Warning in northern NSW.

Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede is also visible at the lower left of Jupiter.

I used a modified Canon 6D and a Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 Sports at 120mm F3.2. The foreground is a stack of 3 untracked photos ISO 3200 30 sec and the sky a stack of 5 tracked photos.

The sky was stacked in AstroPixelProcessor and the foreground median stacked in Photoshop.

Intermittent cloud and smoke from local bushfires made for challenging photo selection and editing - this is without doubt the most difficult image I've ever created.

Better quality version on Astrobin ...
https://www.astrobin.com/vm3oe1/

[Dennis]

Really nice work given the local conditions and low altitude of these objects.:thumbsup:

Well worth the effort and thanks for the view.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Merckx]

Great result Kelvin, definitely worth the effort!

[CalvinKlein]

Thanks very much Dennis :)

It nearly didn't happen as I thought I'd left my power cable for my EQ6R mount at home. Luckily I hadn't put everything away from my previous imaging session the night before and it was still attached to it's battery adapter cable. Phew !

[CalvinKlein]

Thanks James - the hardest part was blending the tracked sky with the untracked foreground - with so little contrast between the mountain and the sky I had to painstakingly draw the cut-outline by hand.

[John W]

Nice image Kelvin with some interesting features. Cheers, John W

[CalvinKlein]

Thank you very much John. It's turned out to be quite a unique shot - whilst plenty of people got the planets aligned with ground based objects (and the following night with the new moon) so far I seem to be the only person to have presented an image with the nebula visible and it will be another 24 years before anybody gets another crack at it (and only in the northern hemisphere).

Facebook users certainly like it going by the number of likes / shares its getting and the huge increase in the number of people joining my page.

[astronobob]

Beautiful Image work Kelvin :cool2:

[gregbradley]

That turned out well. I like these longer focal length shots.

Greg.

[CalvinKlein]

Thanks very much Bob:)



Thanks Greg. Yes they are my favourite style of photo.