Combined Moonrise and Sunrise over Brisbane

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

I've been thinking of combining a crescent Moonrise and Sunrise for a while. I tried last month but woke to complete cloud cover, so tried again this morning. Both were set to rise behind the city as viewed from Mt Coot-tha, so I headed up there and set up at about 4:15 am. Unfortunately some bands of cloud came in and interfered somewhat, but I thought the result was worth posting.

The Moonrise sequence was shot first (with a gap of 3 minutes and 15 secs between exposures), and then I waited for just over 1 hr before putting a home-made Baader solar filter over the lens (without moving the tripod) and shooting the sunrise sequence. All the images were then stacked to produce the final result. I'm not entirely happy with this image, but it's something I'll be trying again!

I've also attached a second image showing some nice light in the offending clouds, and a 3rd and 4th image in which I combined images taken after sunrise (in which the city was highly underexposed) with a city light image taken much earlier - just for fun

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Derek Klepp]

Great stuff good to know I wasn't the only one out this morning.Did you see any meteors?

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by Derek Klepp

Great stuff good to know I wasn't the only one out this morning.Did you see any meteors?

Thanks Derek!

And yes, I forgot to mention that I spotted 8 Eta Aquarids while waiting between exposures, which was a very nice way to spend the time!

Cheers,
S.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Quite a unique set of photo's you have there Stephen, good on you.

The sequence is interesting, but the one that grabs me is the illuminated city with the sun just poking over the clouds. I love how surreal it is yet how seamless the composition is. At first glance it looks totally legit like you would expect but then the thought of sun and city lights comes to mind and I think how neatly surreal it is.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

Quite a unique set of photo's you have there Stephen, good on you.

The sequence is interesting, but the one that grabs me is the illuminated city with the sun just poking over the clouds. I love how surreal it is yet how seamless the composition is. At first glance it looks totally legit like you would expect but then the thought of sun and city lights comes to mind and I think how neatly surreal it is.

Thanks very much Roger! Yes, "surreal" is a good description of the sunrise city lights image.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Great photos, Stephen

[h0ughy (David)]

you did rather well i thought, like what you were achieving. it helps to have a photogenic cityscape

[ourkind (Carlos)]

Beautiful Stephen nice work, I like how the sequence turned out with clouds and all. Your exposure of the moon is excellent lots of detail in the earthshine areas. Time well spent

[iceman (Mike)]

Beautiful shots and great idea.

[Ross G]

Great photos Stephen.

Ross.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by Larryp

Great photos, Stephen

Thanks Laurie! Glad you like them.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

you did rather well i thought, like what you were achieving. it helps to have a photogenic cityscape

Thanks David! Yes, the Brisbane CBD looks particularly nice in the early hours of the morning I think.

Originally Posted by ourkind

Beautiful Stephen nice work, I like how the sequence turned out with clouds and all. Your exposure of the moon is excellent lots of detail in the earthshine areas. Time well spent

Thanks Carlos! I guess the clouds do add a bit of interest.

Originally Posted by iceman

Beautiful shots and great idea.

Thanks Mike! I'd like to try again when there's a bright planet or two in the picture as well.

Originally Posted by Ross G

Great photos Stephen.

Ross.

Thanks Ross! Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Stephen

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Great set of shots Stephen, nice work