Scorpius with Crescent Moon, 21 Oct 09

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

The Moon looked nice next to Antares tonight, so I pulled the camera out and took some shots from the local park. This image is 20x10 sec exposures with my 28-50 lens on 34mm and f/4.5 and iso 800, stacked using DSS. The inset is a single 300mm telephoto shot, using a 2 sec exposure.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Stephen

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

I like it! Well spotted Stephen.

Dave

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Very well presented too.
Lovely work Stephen.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Well done. And congratulations, too! I noticed one of your images in the latest edition of Sky and Telescope magazine. Awesome.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Hi StephenM

love the pic I was just wondering about the earth shine in your pic I was looking at the moon at the same time that your photo was taken and I saw earth shine but I couldn't see all the detail that your photo shows in the dark area could someone please explain even the photo's I took didn't show the same detail your pic shows?

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks very much Dave, Jeanette, Troy and Warren!

Originally Posted by dpastern

I like it! Well spotted Stephen.

Dave

Glad you like it, Dave! Scorpius is one of my favorite constellations, so it's nice to get out there and photograph it when the opportunity arises.

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Very well presented too.
Lovely work Stephen.

Thanks Jeanette. It's a pity that the 300mm shot isn't sharper, but I don't have a tracking mount so I had to make do with the tripod.

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Well done. And congratulations, too! I noticed one of your images in the latest edition of Sky and Telescope magazine. Awesome.

Thanks, and well spotted Troy! It's nice to have another one published in the mag. (it's actually my 3rd for 2009, so it's been a good year ).

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Hi StephenM

love the pic I was just wondering about the earth shine in your pic I was looking at the moon at the same time that your photo was taken and I saw earth shine but I couldn't see all the detail that your photo shows in the dark area could someone please explain even the photo's I took didn't show the same detail your pic shows?

It's all about exposure time Warren. For this one I intentionally did a 2 sec exposure to bring out the Earthshine detail. Shorter exposures would show much fainter Earthshine. Also it's a 300mm telephoto lens, which captures a fair bit of detail.

Cheers,
Stephen

[hotspur (Chris)]

Thats very,very good Stephen,i noticed how lovely

it looked,and was disappointed that i did'nt get a pic of it.

I am glad you put the effort in to get this pic.

Congrats on having your work published,i see others made

mention of it,(i dont buy "sky and telescope"),

cheers Chris

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Scorpius is one of the premier constellations imho, along with Orion and Leo. So much to see!

Dave

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by hotspur

Thats very,very good Stephen,i noticed how lovely

it looked,and was disappointed that i did'nt get a pic of it.

I am glad you put the effort in to get this pic.

Congrats on having your work published,i see others made

mention of it,(i dont buy "sky and telescope"),

cheers Chris

Thanks Chris! It did look good didn't it.

Originally Posted by dpastern

Scorpius is one of the premier constellations imho, along with Orion and Leo. So much to see!

Dave

Yep, I agree Dave!


Cheers,
Stephen

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Quite nice Stephan i like it.
Great capture.
Cheers Kev.

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Like it. Well presented.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Kev and Vincent - I appreciate the comments.

Cheers,
Stephen

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Excellent Stephen - what a capture!

Cheers Petra d.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

have you tried layer masking the shot of the moon that way you could capture the earthshine and the detail of the moon and blend it in ? i know its not a Pureists way but it will work