Venus and Merkur at the AVSO

[sweeper]

Happy Easter everyone!

On Good Friday I was able to take this shoot of Venus and Mercury at the AVSO (http://www.avso.de).
I combined two images, one with the Cokin P830 and one without to regulate the soft-focus a bit.

http://www.robert-blasius.de/schdaff/CN/venusmerkuravso-web-CN.jpg

Exposure:
Good Friday 2010, 21:12 CEST, Canon EOS 40D, 3.2s, ISO 500, 75mm, f6,3

Hope you like it.

[iceman]

Beautiful twilight scene, Robert.
What's the Cokin P830 do? Is it a softening filter or something?

[sweeper]

Thanks Mike,

you´re right the Cokin P830 is a softening filter. It is sold in three classes from low to strong softening. The P830 is in the middle.
I like it, because it helps to bring out stars and keeps the color of them.

[sweeper]

I just saw that there will be a nice constellation next week. Moon is meeting the two planets on the 15th and 16th. On 14th there is new moon.
Moon will be luminated at 1.8% at this time and the distance between the Moon and Mercury will be about 2.2°.

Next chance for us to get some nice images! :whistle:

[Liz]

Beautiful image Robert :thumbsup:

[sweeper]

Thanks Liz! :)

I already looked the location for next week. Maybe I will try a composit to get the movement of the two planets.
Let´s see and wait (especially for a good weather!).

[mithrandir]

Stellarium shows this for Sydney. The time is AEST.

Now all I need to do is find a place with a clear western horizon.