Saturday, April 8, 2023

Pleiades/Moon Conjuction

Quick Photo

Cloud cover forecasts at my location are often inaccurate. When I glanced outside on March 25 after sunset it was unexpectedly clear with a crescent Moon above the western horizon. Clear skies don't last long these days, so I hurried to set my camera on a tripod. I took several quick exposures to see if I could capture earthshine on the Moon. The following image is the best of the bunch.

It turns out the Moon was passing close to the Pleiades cluster! Of course, I should have known this and set up a telescope in advance to get a much better picture, but I expected cloudy skies.

The lunar crescent is overexposed and the Pleiades are underexposed. A longer exposure to brighten the Pleiades would make the crescent even more saturated. Now I'm curious to see how well my 130 mm refractor would render a scene like this at higher magnification.

The image above is cropped from a 2.5-second exposure with a Nikon Z6 2 camera. The lens was set at 40 mm, f/2.8, and ISO was 100. 

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People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game

People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go

John Lennon