This was a busy sky in the western twilight on April 17, 2018. To the far right: The waxing crescent Moon, with the darkside lit by Earthshine, about 6° south (left) of Venus in the evening twilight and below the Pleaides, with the Aldebaran and the Hyades to the left of the Pleiades. At centre: Orion setting behind the old farm shed. At far left: Sirius setting behind the old farm house, with bright Procyon at upper left. All set in the deep blue twilight. This is a blend of two exposures: a long 13-second exposure for most of the image and a short 2-second exposure for the bright twiilight at right and the Moon, blended with a luminosity mask. To be artistic I added a “Misty Land” Orton-style glow effect with Luminar. And diffraction spikes on the brightest objects with Astronomy Tools actions. Taken from near home in southern Alberta, with a lot of snow only now beginning to melt. I used the Sigma 24mm Art lens at f/2 and Nikon D750 at ISO 800.
The waxing crescent Moon, with the darkside lit by Earthshine, a binocular field south of Venus, bright as an evening star. This was April 17, 2018, from near home in southern Alberta. This was with the Nikon D750 and the old 1970s vintage 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor lens at f/2.8. This is a single 5-second exposure, untracked. To be artistic I added diffraction spikes on Venus with Astronomy Tools actions, and an Orton-style glow effect with Luminar effects plug-in.
Orion and the winter stars setting into the west on a mid-April evening, on April 14, 2018. Clouds coming from the west hide or dim some of the stars, notably Aldebaran at centre. But Orion left of centre is mostly in the clear. Sirius is at far left, above it Procyon. Castor and Pollux are at top, with Capella right of top centre. The bright object low in the twilight is Venus. This is a stack of 5 images for the ground to smooth noise and one image for the sky, all 15 seconds untracked at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 14mm SP and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800.
