Planetary reflections

Rating:

8
2 Ratings since 2008-03-10 22:32

Description
Mercury and Venus rising in the early morning twilight, and reflecting in a pond. Taken at Snake Valley, Victoria, Australia, 9 March 2008.

Canon 400D on tripod, 15 sec exposure at ISO 400, F/4.0. Download 555kb

Keywords
Venus - Mercury - reflection - stars - planets

License
Standard Image License

Views: 118 | Downloads: 10

Comments

JohnMcElroy wrote on 2008-03-10 22:32 GMT:

Rated:

What a shot!!!

Rhonda_B wrote on 2008-03-11 05:27 GMT:

Rated:

Great shot what settings did you use for this shot?? You probably used a tripod right? I'm trying to learn how to take night shots like that ...Rhonda

Rob_K wrote on 2008-03-11 06:04 GMT:

Rated: Not Rated

Thanks Rhonda - details are beside shot. It's a 15-sec tripod exposure, not enough to cause star trailing shooting at 18mm in 18-55mm kit lens. ISO lowered to 400 to reduce noise, always a problem with low-light shots. In-camera noise reduction was turned on, but I'm not sure it made a significant difference - might have at ISO 1600 or even 800.

For these shots, you really need a bit of light to silhouette things - not much good having bright star/planet reflections if you can't see the pond! There was just a slight brightening of the sky in this one, taken well before sunrise.

I took an earlier set of Jupiter & some of the Milky Way reflections but there was no dawn illumination and I had to have a longer exposure (30-sec) at ISO 1600. Fortunately there was a little 'skyglow' from a distant town which provided a bit of illumination, but the shots still had tons of noise. Not all that pretty!

Practise makes perfect really - I've still got a long way to go, but regularly get out and shoot in low light, playing with different settings.