First Quarter Moon and Pleiades, 21st February

[Andrew*]

As I gazed up at a moonlit sky on Sunday night, it struck me that there was something missing - where are the Pleiades?? I realised fairly soon of course, that they were right in the glare of the moon! A photo opportunity if ever there was one!

I combined a long exposure with a short one by selecting the stars and pasting them onto the moon.

Comments on the processing would be appreciated - how would you do it?

Scope: Orion ED80 at f/7.5

Camera: Canon 450D

Exposures: one 10 second shot to capture stars and one 1/160 sec. for the moon

Processing: Photoshop

Andrew

[MickyWay]

Hi Andrew,

Really nice image, and well put together. Well done.

I was hoping to see this, but the weather beat me.

You might like to try to bring the Moon forward in the image by

equalising the colour and increasing the Moon's contrast.

In Photoshop, change to 'grayscale' and click 'auto tone'.

See what you think.

Regards,

[Sam]

Great capture Andrew! very nice shot.

Sam

[Andrew*]

Hi Mickyway and thanks for the input. Yes, I realise now how lacking the moon is in contrast, so I had a go on that. Don't knwo why that slipped me by. I couldn't find the Auto Tone function, so did it manually with levels.

I tried it in greyscale, and I also tried a gentle colour-saturation boost. I like both

Monotone:

extra colour:

Cheers

Andrew

[JonH]

Fantastic shot. It's great to see the moon with a starry background.

[sheri_barri]

That is gorgeous!!! Excellent capture!!!

[Andrew*]

Thanks guys

[AztecastroMcJ]

very nice pics, remember viewing myself that night

James

[Beyond_Vision]

Very nicely captured and processed Andrew. It's quite a sight seeing them together

Regards

Kevin

[Pete Presland]

i had a look at this on the night ,but as for imaging a single object is hard enough at the present lol.great shots its amazing what you can do after the pic is taken! well done

[Scott Tilley]

Nice shots Andrew, must say I'm a sucker for seeing the moon with that subtle bit of colour.

Scott

[Andrew*]

Glad you all like it.

Yes, I do think colour adds something, and am generally not keen on monotone moons...

Andrew