The astrophotographer’s Holy Grail
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ooooohhhhh… pretty. The earthshine shows up nicely.
ooooohhhhh… pretty. The earthshine shows up nicely.
And that’s really, really hard to do without over exposing the moon. Nice crescent shot. If it’s thin, it’s in (hey, there’s a theme there…)
very nice. this is the thinnest moon I’ve ever gotten a good photo of:
looking up the historical moon data, that’s 72 hours after the new moon.
Oh, come on, soosh! Surely you’ve gotten a better thin crescent than that! You’re a astrophotographer’s dream, for crying out loud!! I am constantly green with envy at your shots!!
/Isn’t that the shot you used in one of the more recent contests, btw?
…and CA is a bee-atch with the moon, isn’t it?
Oh, come on, soosh! Surely you’ve gotten a better thin crescent than that! You’re a astrophotographer’s dream, for crying out loud!! I am constantly green with envy at your shots!!
/Isn’t that the shot you used in one of the more recent contests, btw?
well, it isn’t something that I’ve really gone out and looked for.
I’m opportunistic. I can’t go when there’s an event in the sky as much as I can go when the skies are clear and see what there is to take a photo of.
Of course, right now, they’re completely clear and my digital is fubar.
But we get around 300 days of non-clear sky here a year. It can make it tough to capture a particular phase.
We have the opposite problem here; 300 clear days a year (or thereabouts); it’s hard to capture something weather related, excepting monsoon related, to add visual interest. The rest of the year? Meah. Not so much. Auroras? Fergitaboutit.
There’s plenty of freeware out there (and websites) that will give you the moon phase–I’d bet you could better your shot within three months, if you look for it (and I hope you do; you certainly have the skill and the equipment!–plus, in your area the viewing allows a lot of [pardon the pun] latitude, time-wise, to get the nice shots, whereas I had to capture the moment within 20 or so minutes, or it was gone.)
Oh, I follow moon phases a lot, because too much moon ruins night photography. You really don’t want much more than a crescent because there’s a whole lot of light in that thing.
Alaska must be like Narnia; I rely on some decent moonlight to get nice nighttime scenery shots (higher f/stops, longer exposures=softer shadows). Up there, the stars themselves are probably fit enough to do the job.
Gods, I want less light pollution down here.
I usually shoot fairly wide-open at night, because mostly I shoot really wide (12-24mm) so about all I gain by stopping down is enhanced dust on the sensor and longer wait times in between shots. I get the best colors when it’s pretty much black out to the eye and wide open exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 100 take 5-6 minutes. It’s gotta be really dark for that.
You gotta realize, too, that darkness in Alaska means winter, and winter means snow, and it doesn’t take too much moon to turn the mountains into great big light reflectors. When there’s a full moon and snow on the ground, once your eyes adjust, you can walk around just fine. With no moon and no light pollution, you can’t see your hand at the end of your arm.
also, a sign I found out in the woods:
Snow? What’s snow? Is it that white stuff that was floating around everywhere in the L, t W, &t W, because I’d heard of that stuff before, but I thought maybe it was just a special effect they used for the movie. Sometimes I see something like it on the mountains off in the distance, but I was fairly certain it’s just someone putting white sheets on all the trees up there to keep them from freezing (we do that here in the valley for our citrus, too.)
Funny picture–where’s the fawn? The lamp post?
also, a sign I found out in the woods:
That is so awesome.
When there’s a full moon and snow on the ground, once your eyes adjust, you can walk around just fine. With no moon and no light pollution, you can’t see your hand at the end of your arm.
That’s not just Alaska, you can tromp around in the desert or the plains by any sliver of moon as if it were late twilight. Most people just never spend enough time in the dark to get adapted.
I HATE LP. Turn the damn light off and learn to see. 😉
That’s not just Alaska, you can tromp around in the desert or the plains by any sliver of moon as if it were late twilight. Most people just never spend enough time in the dark to get adapted.
I HATE LP. Turn the damn light off and learn to see. 😉
This is true, but I keep a black light pointed at the ground anyway (one of them pocket keychain ones); damned scorpions bother me some (tarantulas not so much.)
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