Pleiades and Moon in one shot - possible ? tips ?

[powerlord]

So, I noticed that tonight I could get a nice moon in the same frame as Pleiades which would look awesome. theoretically.

Of course practically.. it would need composing and even then would I actually get any detail of Pleiades dust ?

I'm thinking it's probably a lost cause - and if you are going to composite it, you might as well shoot the moon seperately on a night it's not right next to it, Pleiades on a night when the moon is not right next to it, and composite it up to at least 'look' like it could look if we were not at the mercy of moon light pollution in the atmosphere..

What do you reckon? I mean obviously shooting the moon bit is easy - some short exposures, job done. But I'm pretty sure that when I take 60-120 sec exposures the light pollution off the moon is just going to wash out everything else in the frame.

With 2 or 3 nights forecast of clear skies and good seeing I'm trying to plan what I can to maximise them, so don't really want to be experimenting... M57, NCG6823,  NGC6543, NGC7293, jupiter and saturn are all on my list - I feel a bit like a kid in a candy store after so long with crap weather...

[vlaiv]

Interesting question, and yes - you have the answer - do shoot moon separately and Pleiades separately and do composition, but main question for me is how often such phenomena occurs?

Lunar declination can reach 28 degrees and Pleiades are at 24 degrees - so it is possible - but for moon to be in the same spot in the sky - I guess it's not that often?

[vlaiv]

It looks it happens fairly regularly - here is interesting pass on 16th of February next year:

[johnturley]

18 minutes ago, powerlord said:

So, I noticed that tonight I could get a nice moon in the same frame as Pleiades which would look awesome. theoretically.

Of course practically.. it would need composing and even then would I actually get any detail of Pleiades dust ?

I'm thinking it's probably a lost cause - and if you are going to composite it, you might as well shoot the moon seperately on a night it's not right next to it, Pleiades on a night when the moon is not right next to it, and composite it up to at least 'look' like it could look if we were not at the mercy of moon light pollution in the atmosphere..

What do you reckon? I mean obviously shooting the moon bit is easy - some short exposures, job done. But I'm pretty sure that when I take 60-120 sec exposures the light pollution off the moon is just going to wash out everything else in the frame.

With 2 or 3 nights forecast of clear skies and good seeing I'm trying to plan what I can to maximise them, so don't really want to be experimenting... M57, NCG6823,  NGC6543, NGC7293, jupiter and saturn are all on my list - I feel a bit like a kid in a candy store after so long with crap weather...

If you try to photograph the Moon and the Pleiades in the same frame, I think that you will find the light from the moon will swamp out the Pleiades most of the time, the exception would be when there is a thin crescent moon close to the Pleiades in the evening in the spring, or around July in the morning sky. 

John  

Edited September 5, 2023 by johnturley

[carastro]

I agree, I don't think it is possible to image both simultaneously, too much difference in brightness, maybe even needing different cameras.

Edited September 5, 2023 by carastro