Random Snap: The Moon and Venus

[Comments to Friday's two posts have been added.]

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I was going to put this in the last post but I gave up trying to make it relate somehow, so here it is all by itself. More lunatic stuff. The Moon and Venus, taken with the new Sony. Handheld! I cropped this down quite a bit so the celestial bodies would show up more clearly. The full frame has lots more tree at the top and on the right side. A lovely evening. I wish I could put the smell of the air in the picture for you.

Mike

Book o' the Week

Photography, The Definitive Visual History by Tom Ang. This is a book that can't exist—it's too much work to put it together, like several others I know of (I'm looking at you, Q.T. Luong). Amazingly, it exists anyway. A brightly-lit shop window for the attractions of photography—a whirlwind tour of people, cameras, and pictures. The author still has time to be an accomplished travel photographer, although I don't know how.

The above is a link to Amazon from TOP. Once you're at Amazon, anything you search and buy will be credited to TOP. The following logo is also a link:

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mike Ferron: "I took a similar shot from my front yard. Venus was so bright I had to call Karin outside to get a look at it as well."

Mike replies: It was amazingly bright, wasn't it? Something my picture doesn't show well. The air was so clear.

Matt G: "Thanks for sharing the photo! I took a picture of the conjunction a few hours later near my home in Southeast Alaska). It was not long after sunset and the moon would soon drop behind a cloud bank. I'm mostly not much of a planner, but I do like to document what I see when I'm out and about. In my case I had been out to see if a Short-eared Owl might show up around dusk at our airport (one of very few places with open fields where I live). I didn't see an owl, but it was great to see the Moon and Venus together.

"(In my case, handheld 500mm at 1/60—I'm certainly grateful for modern image stabilization!—assuming the link worked, click the photo to see a slightly larger version.)"

Comments

[Chris Kern]

Also handheld, Tuesday night. Fuji X-T4, 70-300mm zoom mounted on 1.4x teleconverter at 1/125th second (sic). The combination of in-body and lens-based stabilization is quite remarkable.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chriskernpix/51669191420/in/datetaken/

[Matt G]

Thanks for sharing the photo! I took a picture of the conjunction a few hours later near my home in Southeast Alaska). It was not long after sunset and the moon would soon drop behind a cloud bank. I'm mostly not much of a planner, but I do like to document what I see when I'm out and about. In my case I had been out to see if a Short-eared Owl might show up around dusk at our airport (one of very few places with open fields where I live). I didn't see an owl, but it was great to see the Moon and Venus together. (In my case, handheld 500mm at 1/60 - I'm certainly grateful for modern image stabilization! - assuming the link worked, click the photo to see a slightly larger version)

[Stan B.]

As per your previous post, I was thinking today of how many times the moon and Venus have been mistaken for UFO's- and how many times scientists (who should know better) have insisted said UFO's to be either Venus or the moon despite neither of them being visible at the time nor the place of the sightings. I have no problem with science being the arbiter of research, I do object to science negating, or perverting research.

We finally have legitimate news sources (like The NY Times) and fact based researchers questioning the purposeful lack of scientific research into the 5% of UFO sightings that cannot be explained away by current scientific fact, or conjecture. Luis Elizondo, former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and former employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence is on the record stating that our government currently has high definition photographs where occupants can be clearly seen within alien craft.

[Collin Orthner]

Do you think maybe some of the new AI apps may have the capability to add a "Scratch 'n Sniff" component to our images? The AI could analyze the photo and decide on a nice "smell" to add for our enjoyment.

Nothing beats being in the spot at the time experiencing first hand with all our senses!

[Phil Stiles]

Please scratch my earlier comment. I found the following

https://www.click2houston.com/weather/2021/11/08/our-november-sky-is-a-happening-place/

Lots of planets around the Moon this month! And Venus is not as bright as usual, because its farther away.

Phil

[Moose]

Nice.

The photographer in me asks how this photo would be any different taken with any of hundreds of camera/lens combinations with normal AoV (say 45-55 mm FF eq.)

The gearhead in me looks at "Handheld!" and asks Huh?

The old rule of shutter speed = 1/FL proposes 1/45 sec. Shot is @ 1/50. No IS needed.

OK, cropping changes the equation in one direction, display so small changes it in the other.

[Bob Johnston]

I might be wrong but are sure that's not Jupiter Mike? I too find the night sky inspiring. Sadly the light pollution is bad where I live. I wonder how many of the local kids have seen anything other than the moon and the brightest planets.

[Oskar Ojala]

Very nice! I particularly like the moon in context, though since almost all of my own photography is about context this fits pretty well for my tastes.

Also interested to hear how the a6600 is working out since I'm interested in possibly getting one. Though the Sony A7C has made me think how big the size and ergonomic differences between full frame and APS-C will be in actual use when nothing longer than 100 mm is used.

[Sherwood Mclernon]

Hello Mike
That is definitely Jupiter and the moon. Venus actually appeared to the right of the moon, between the moon and the setting sun.
Sherwood Mclernon

[Martin Pallett]

Was this taken on the 7th of November? If so, the planet is definitely Venus: Jupiter and Saturn would be far to the left of the image.

Great image by the way!

Martin

[Aashish Sharma]

@Matt G: That is a wonderful photo! I'm not very good with describing emotions, so I'll just say it makes me happy inside. :-)

[Dave]

Ooh, I like that photo by Matt G. The clouds give it such great atmosphere (no pun intended). Great job!

[Zyni Moë]

To clarify: is easy to tell from photo's metadata that this is indeed the Moon and Venus, not Jupiter.

If you look closely you can see the little green person in the moon as well, I am sure.

[Sherwood Mclernon]

Hello Mike

I had assumed that the photo was taken on the 10th in which case Jupiter would have been to the left of the moon. If it was taken on the 7th, Venus was to the left of the moon. When you had mentioned that you meant to include the photo in your previous post, I had assumed that it was taken on the 10th. My bad.
Sherwood

[Hi Sherwood, My fault. The metadata says "Date Created 11/7/21, 7:21:44 PM," and I should have included that. "Venus" was just a guess on my part. --Mike]