Moon Jupiter Venus & Pleiades

[RikM]

I don't have a photogenic foreground for this unfortunately

And a closer shot of just Jupiter and the Moon with earthshine.

[Gina]

Nice earthshine on the crescent moon

[JB80]

I love the diffraction spikes on the first pic. I totally forgot the Pleiades were there too.

Presumeably because you used a higher f ratio?

[Ponoobersie]

I had this stunning view also!! It looked amazing!!

[gadieid]

The photos are great and make sure to photograph Venus in the Pleiades tonight! it will be extremely close like this. Nothing special is requires use a tripod and your maximal zoom for about 1-3 seconds exposure!

[RikM]

Like this

[Walky]

I used a 250 mm zoom and made the mistake of 20 secs, 15 secs, 10 secs and got the dreaded trails. By the time i was at 10 secs I was tired and did not think that 1,2,3 secs could be feasible. Urrrg!

[RikM]

All is not lost! if you take your 10sec pic, make a duplicate layer in Photoshop (or similar), set the blend mode to 'darken', select the layer and then nudge it in the direction of the star trails they will start to disappear. Shift the 'darken' layer until you have the stars as round as you want them and then flatten the image. If you get as far as 1 pixel being too much of a nudge, nudge it and then edit -> fade and then adjust the slider until it's perfect.

I used 3.2 sec at f/5.6, ISO800 and 135mm (216mm equivalent on a crop sensor). I had to round the stars a little bit.

This works for deep sky images as well but does tend to make noise more obvious so get that under control first.

[Walky]

I will try that tonight.Many thanks!

BTW , Venus does not show as a Sphere, more like a Huge star . It must be either the ISO and aperture combination or the lens. What is it?

Will post both to check results.

[Doug]

Nice one Rik

[Walky]

It worked very well, given the original I was working with.

#1: Original with trails

#2: Modified with PS (to the right of #1)

#3: Refining with LR

You saved my work, not that is is anything that can override a photo well taken, but at least I can say it is viewable and gives me an idea of what was happening last night.

I went for so many seconds because I could not see the Pleiades with the naked eye. there were clouds and the moon was shining bright.

I just aimed at Venus and shot away, probably 15 photos.

GREAT TIP!T hank You

Do you have anything for stacking with PS? I have never used PS for this.

[RikM]

Well done, great capture. I don't use PS for stacking other than combining two different exposure times, eg dropping a bright moon into a long exposure starfield using layers and masks. I use Deep Sky Stacker (free download) for stacking.

[Beyond_Vision]

What a lovely view it was too. Thanks for sharing it with us

Regards

Kevin

[Walky]

What a lovely view it was too. Thanks for sharing it with us

Regards

Kevin

Thank you, though I know it does not deserve your praise, it shows that the technique works, which was my intention. We don't have many clear nights in Florida, USA which is a shame.

I am enjoying all the beautiful shots of the many good astrophotographers you have here. I learn a little every day but don't practice much.