But I only have myself to blame. Once again, I wanted to get up early and drive down to the lakeshore to see Mercury, Mars and the Moon together in the east. Last night every forcast I could get told me I was in for some clear skies.
Alrighty, subconscious and bladder, wake me up for 5AM!
And so it was
After an exciting event of the "gotta pee now" Olympics, I proceeded to check my supposed clear skies. Well. Seems I'm not going to the lakeshore today either.... Again, a lot of humidity and high thins. Hmmmm.... I made some coffee and thought about it. Since I was up, I decided to do a repeat of yesterday; drive to the little park near my daughters school. The mount was in the trunk already, so I took my C80 and camera out to the car.Loaded all that, and scraped the frost off the car windows. Wasn't like this yesterday at the same time, but this morning it was somewhat colder (-13C, 8F) and damper. Turned up the heat and put on the seat warmer. That's the ticket.
Drove to the park, unloaded everything and put it all together, then sat in the car while it all cooled down.
Got out of the car at just after 6AM, and the Moon had risen enough to be clear of the few trees present. I focused it with the camera, and was amazed at how "watery" it all looked. This should be fun.
I took 80 shots, at ISO 1600 & 3200, and shutter speeds from 1/200 to 1/500 of a second. The shots at ISO 3200 were the best; much sharper than the ones at ISO 1600. Again, I think the quicker shutter speed has a bit to do with that.
I stacked the whole lot; the ISO 3200's had some noise, and combining the ISO 1600's seemed to make for a better, less pixelated background.
According to Stellarium, the Moon was 6% illuminated when I took these. First one is B&W, the second is cheesy
Packed it all up and went home. I did want to try for some daylight shots at about 8AM, but I couldn't even find the Moon with all the haze. Maybe next time.
So all you
I just hope your weather cooperates!All the best,
