Moon, Venus and Neptune
Taken by Alan Dyer on February 1, 2025 @
near Gleichen, Alberta
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Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS R5
Exposure Time: 2/1
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 400
Date Taken: 2025:02:02 10:55:01
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Details:
This is the close conjunction of the 3.5-day-old crescent Moon near Venus, with the two worlds about 2.5° apart this night. Both appeared embedded in light cloud that was clearing off after a day of cloud and snow, but it added to the photogenic scene. An even better bonus is Neptune, also in the frame below the Moon as a dim bluish dot. Venus happened to be nearly at its closest to Neptune this night as it passed above the much more distant planet.
So this is a conjunction of three worlds. Venus was shining at magnitude -4.6 but Neptune was magnitude +7.9, making Venus about 90,000 times brighter than Neptune! At upper right is the very red star TX or 19 Piscium, shining at magnitude 5 from 900 light years awat, and an example of a very red long-period variable star.
The blend of multiple exposures retains details on the sunlit lunar crescent while revealing the "dark side" of the Moon and Earthshine, as well as the clouds and stars.
Technical:
This is a blend of 8 exposures from 1/50 second (for the lunar crescent) in one stop increments down to 2 seconds (for the sky, stars, and clouds). Blended with Light1 luminosity masks created with the Lumenzia extension panel in Photoshop. With the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 200mm, and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. On a static tripod, no tracking. Images manually aligned.
It was about -22º C this night with a chill wind. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
Photographer's website:
https://www.amazingsky.com
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