Moon, Pleiades and Venus over Brisbane city

[StephenM]

Hi all,

As others have shown, there was a spectacular occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon this evening. I chose a location on a hill directly east of the CBD, hoping to catch the action over the city, and it paid off! I was expecting it to be quite difficult to capture, given the difference in brightness between the sunlit portions of the Moon and the stars, plus the bright twilight. Happily, however, everything worked out nicely, and I'm quite happy with the results.

All images taken with a tripod-mounted dSLR and 70-300mm lens. I think the last one is my favourite!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

[h0ughy]

fantastic shots - congratulations

[StephenM]

Thanks very much David!

Cheers,
Stephen

[cookie8]

Great shooting Stephen. The last one is awesome.

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Stephen

Great stuff - no. 3 is very pleasing to me!

[Dennis]

Hi Stephen

What a terrific portfolio of images – you’ve done a superb job at catching this conjunction; the Brisbane cityscape really adds another dimension to the occasion.

Cheers

Dennis

[StephenM]

Thanks Vincent! They turned out better than I expected.

Cheers,
Stephen



Thanks Matt! Yes, it was nice to get a shot with Venus in the frame as well. Shame about all the light pollution from the Gabba (left hand side of image), but good that the Lions had a win!

Cheers,
Stephen



Thanks Dennis! I'm glad I made the effort to get the city in the background.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Liz]

Woohoo!! Very nice, am so jealous of your clear skies ... down there. ;)
Great shots ... think 3 is my fav but 5 is great too.
Hope you sent to spaceweather.com :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Thanks Liz!,

Pity about the clouds up there. Still, there's another occultation just before dawn in mid June so hopefully you'll have clear weather for that one.

I've adjusted the 3rd and last image a bit this morning, and have posted them below.

Cheers,
Stephen

[trick]

Nice captures there Stephen, I like the city scapes.

[iceman]

Stunning images, Stephen! The two that you reprocessed are my favourites! Winners right there!

[StephenM]

Thanks trick, glad you like them!

Cheers,
Stephen



Thanks very much Mike! I'm quite pleased with those two that I reprocessed. I've already selected a vantage point for the next Pleiades occultation, which occurs at dawn on June 11th :).

Hope you got some images as well!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Analog6]

Lovely work, Stephen. We had clouds!

[StephenM]

Thanks Odille! Shame you were clouded out. I could see a thunderhead and a bit of lightning down your way as I was setting up.

Cheers,
Stephen

[iceman]

This image (the 3rd one) is this weeks IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/home.html).

[multiweb]

Great stuff Steven. Beautiful pictures. :thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

Very nice indeed! Love the calrity and obvisouly the framing!

[Liz]

Congratulations Stephen ... it was my favourite. :thumbsup:

[spacezebra]

Stunning as always Stephen.

Congrats.
Cheers Petra d.

[lacad01]

Great images Stephen, good stuff on getting up on IOTW :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Thanks very much Mike!

Cheers,
Stephen

[StephenM]

Thanks very much for the comments Marc, Paul, Liz, Petra and Adam! Much appreciated!

Cheers,
Stephen

[alexch]

Excellent images and congratulations about IOTW!
Alex

[PeterM]

Can't be right! We have no sky!
Seriously though Stephen, NICE, very NICE.

PeterM.

[Satchmo]

The mindless light polluting energy sapping concrete boxes at the bottom of the frame ruin the shot ;)

[danielsun]

Beautiful images there Stephen.:thumbsup: 3 definitely my favorite.;)

Congrats on getting IOTW.

Cheers Daniel.

[StephenM]

Thanks again for all the comments!

Cheers,
Stephen