My Pictures of the Smiley Face Conjunction (Venus, Jupiter, Moon)

[iceman]

Hi all

Here are my images from last nights "Smiley Face Conjunction" of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon.

Clouds threatened to spoil the event for me as the evening approached, but luckily they cleared just enough to grab some images.

I ended up going to a different spot, as I didn't want the same type of images from the day before (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2008/12/01/jupiter-venus-and-crescent-moon-practise-for-tonight), with the same foreground interest. So I found a nice reserve at Green Point, overlooking Brisbane Water.

After getting rained on for 5 minutes, attacked by mosquitoes, sniffed out by a wet dog who went for a swim just near me, stepping in water on the rocks (cause I left my red light torch at home! :doh: ), and almost missing the entire thing due to clouds, I'm happy enough with how the shots turned out :)

Low res shots are attached. My full report and higher-res images here:
Pictures of the Smiley Face Conjunction (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2008/12/02/pictures-of-the-smiley-face-conjunction)

Thanks for looking.

[[1ponders]]

Fantastic compositions Mike. :bowdown:

[Garyh]

Beautiful Mike!
Those clouds looked like they definably worked in your favor with those lovely sunset hues and reflections!
:thumbsup:

[firstlight]

Very nice colours and composition Mike

[Dennis]

Nice work Mike! Location shooting does have its challenges eh…an equipment/accessory check list can be helpful!

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

thought you had a pearler of a sunset. nice shots Mike.

[Liz]

Wow :eyepop: fantabulous!!!!

[StephenM]

Great collection of images Mike!

[sheeny]

Great work, Mike!

Al.

[Ric]

Good stuff Mike, great images.

Ah the trials and tribulations of astrophotography, something to laugh about later on down the track.

[okiscopey]

I vote for no. 7 ... great shot!

[cookie8]

Iceman, you've done it again. Wonderful work Mike
I love the colour and the reflection.

[rogerg]

spectacular colour in those shots mike! Really nice. :thumbsup: I tried a few with reflections of the trio but the reflections didn't work out for me. I think the third is my favorite :thumbsup:

[RB]

Excellent mate, well done.
Lovely colours and composition.

The clouds add a bit of 'atmosphere' I reckon.

:thumbsup:

[chuffdaddy]

Hey Mike,

I got a cryptic sms from Mum yesterday saying 'look at the smiley face in the western sky'

Well, lo & behold, as I was sitting at home last night, here in Koh Samui Thailand, I happened a glance out the window and there it was, a big smiley face in the sky...great!!

Unfortunately, the photo's from my mobile phone are not worth posting on your site.

Keep up the great work and a big GDay to the family.

Luke

[seeker372011]

nice shots Mike..I saw a couple of them over on the Daily Telly site

[Quark]

Mike, nice work, love the 4th one, I think the cloud adds so much more character.

Trevor

[iceman]

Thanks heaps for all your feedback, much appreciated.

I stayed up until very early this morning processing these to get them online today.. I only got about 3.5 hours sleep but i'm glad I got through them.


Thanks Gary - the clouds definitely helped with the glow from first the sunset, and then the lights of Woy Woy, to give the sky some colour.


Thanks Dennis, you're right - a checklist would've helped. I did have the red light torch the night before, but ended up not needing it. I would've loved it last night.
I did find one of those battery-less torches in my glovebox (the ones you shake to charge), but it's kinda broken and only lit up WHILE I was shaking it - so when I tried to use it, it flickered on and off like a strobe and actually made it harder to see where I was going!



It was a beautiful evening, in-between the rain and wind :)


Definitely right about that, Ric.. I'm still scratching the mozzie bites though :)


Thanks Vincent - your moon trail idea is very unique! I loved that one.


Thanks Roger. I wanted to capture more reflections later on when the trio got lower, but that's when it got quite windy and the water lost its mirror-like appearance completely.


Thanks RB - they definitely add drama to the scene.


Hey Luke, how's it going bro?! I was chuffed when I saw you sign up :) I'm glad you got to see it - definitely not something you see every day.
Hope you and Tan are well!


Thanks Narayan - I saw them in the gallery on news.com.au earlier too - very exciting.


Thanks Trevor!

[jungle11]

Mike, if you din't have kids you could travel all over taking pictures for travel brochures. Incredible!

[Jen]

:eyepop: wow very nice pics :thumbsup: i love the one with the reflections on the water very cool :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Superb work Mike, you are a master at this type of photography mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[Deeno]

Very nice Man of Ice....as always
:2thumbs:

[iceman]

Thanks guys.

Here's 2 more images. 1 reprocessed and 1 new. Both HDR.

Larger versions (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=16).

[Matty P]

Stunning images Mike. Absolutely amazing.

The last two have come out very nice as well.

Wow! :thumbsup:

[starfinder]

Beautiful shots Mike. The colours and cloud effects are truly stunning. Full marks. Russ

[Phil Hart]

It's taken me awhile to get time for looking at everybody elses photos but these are amazing. It's a very fine line between enough cloud to add to the shot and too much to ruin it, but I can't imagine a better sunset cloudscape than this. A bit lucky obviously, but persistence and dedication has to pay back some days!

Initially I conceived of wide angle sunset shots over the Gippsland Lakes but I didn't have great foreground scenes so decided to go the telephoto option. I would be very happy with your results (am already more than a little envious!).

You may have already done this, but I'd love to see a post on your HDR work. Can you post the low and high exposures you combined for these results?

Doing a practice run the night before is also a sign you're taking this far too seriously - that's the kind of thing I would do :-). It's partly from my practice run on the Lakes the night before (with a medium format film Mamiya C33!) that I decided to change my plans..

[Screwdriverone]

:lol::lol::rofl:

Absolutely LOVE the Movember shot Mike!

Classic, very lucky cloud formations.

Still chuckling at that one.

Reflections is a beauty too.

Awww, shucks, they're all good.

Movember is my fave tho.

HA HA HA.! very clever

Well done.

Chris

[jase]

Well done on your APOD Mike.:D

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081205.html

:thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

wow, yes, nice APOD Mike, well done.

[RB]

Congrats Mike. :thumbsup:

[rwong]

Hi Mike

Another one added to APOD. Congratulations.

Cheers
Reg:)

[Ric]

Well done Mike, a great reward for a fine image.

Cheers

[iceman]

Thanks again guys, much appreciated. It's been a busy 24 hours!


Hi Phil - a great idea. I'll write a post that shows the 3 exposures used for the HDR and the combined result.


I wanted to try a new location so a practise run was essential - plus, if the clouds ruined the whole event on Monday at least I had something from the night before :)

[Tandum]

Nice pics Mike. Saw one from NY today and it was a frown :(

[spacezebra]

Excellent Mike

Well done.

Cheers Petra