Posted on 12/01/2008 10:08:12 AM PST by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.
A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
ping!
Anybody got settings for Olympus or Canon digital SLR cameras for the best shots?
It looked pretty amazing last night. The kind of thing the ancients would have viewed as an omen of impending doom.
Caught the whole spectacle on the weekend watching the sunsest at Laguna Beach. Totally awesome. Venus is incredibly bright.
Yup, they've been gorgeous for the past several evenings.
MM (in TX)
I thought I saw a too bright of a light at sunset last night. I could not see behind some trees. Now I know.
Omen?.......
I saw the two planets the other night...very bright. The addition of the sliver moon will complete the picture...IF the skies are clear here in S.E. Pa. tonite.
Camera exposures will be shorter than you think. Try 1/60 sec at 200-300mm @ ISO 400
Fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest are not the times to get excited about any thing of an astronomical nature. Chances are all your going to have is heavy cloud cover.
A gray dreariness is all that exists now that Obama has been elected... or else it is just the first winter storm. I'll blame Obama unless I hear otherwise.
If you have a digital, then take quite a few at differnet exposures, doing what photographers call "bracketing" since the cost of film is no longer an issue. Use a tripod and set your camera on manual. Set the ISO to 16000. Open your aperture as wide as it gets (probably 3.5 if it's the stock 18-55m Canon lens) and take shots from 2 to 30 seconds (think you'll like the 5 second exposure). The longer it goes the more washed out the scene will be. Make sure there are no street lights in the view. Use the zoom to its full extent if there is a lot of lighting clutter around.
For composition try and get a tree or hillside silhouetted in the background using a more wide angle view on the zoom. Buildings are usually not attractive in these kinds of scenes unless it's something like attractive like a cathedral or a capitol dome, or a familiar high rise.
If we don't have fog here like last night, I'm going to give it a try too.
Thanks! I have the cam timer set...trying this now..
Interesting...I was out early this morning for a walk in the cool, crisp air and I noticed the sunrise was an unusual, incredible, fire red.
Start taking photos when the sky is still bright from the sunset. This will give you a more interesting effect to backlight the foreground trees or buildings or whatever is on the horizon. If you wait until dark, you lose the foreground. If you use autofocus lenses, I would turn it off and set the focus manually for infinity.
Post to your freeper page if you get a good shot?
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