Above – The Constellation Orion with the Moon on the far right.
This is my attempt at taking images of the sky at night by using high ISO settings and long exposure times. Image manipulation software was also used to tidy up some of the images before presentation.
When you look up at the sky you can recognise the Sun and the Moon. At night time you will see quite a lot of shining dots which are stars or a planet. There is a simple rule. Stars emit their own light. The moon and other planets that are seen in the sky reflect sunlight.
Basic Astronomy
The Sun is the centre of our Solar System, with Mercury being the closest to the Sun, and then comes Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Place Solar System in your Search Engine to find out more information.
A Constellation is a grouping of Stars which seem to form a pattern. One such pattern of Stars which can be seen in the Sky on a clear night is Orion. I have drawn a simple diagram above to show you what it looks like in the sky. Place Constellation in your Search Engine to find out more information.
Last month, 27th February at 5:53 p.m., I was taking photos of smoke from my window.
At 5:55 p.m. I noticed two bright objects in the sky. I zoomed the camera to 800 mm and captured them as individual items.
The larger object was the moon and the smaller object was Venus, the second planet from the Sun.
By 7:05 p.m. I decided to take another picture. That was it for the night.
The date is the 29th February at 6:31 p.m. The moon and Venus has returned to the sky for the night. This image was modified by software and this is what has produced the lines in the night sky.
The above image is Venus as seen from my camera which was set at 1300 mm with digital zoom.
The setting of 1300 mm with digital zoom was also used for the moon images.
The previous images were presentations of the Moon and Venus with different settings. Image manipulation software was used to make the background darker. The foreground was included of the trees and houses to add more content. The ISO was adjusted from 800 to 3200 which introduced more digital noise into the images. The moon image was set at 1300 mm without digital zoom. The red and white streaks in some of the images are aeroplanes flying by.
The Moon above the houses at ISO 3200.
The Constellation Orion with the moon at ISO 6400.
The Constellation Orion with the background made darker by software.
By 9:25 p.m. the Moon was disappearing off into the trees. The lighting for the tree depended on the light being reflected by the moon.
The following images could just have been on the Moon, Venus and Orion (Portraits). Contents were included to show the images in their surroundings.
Be careful when you are taking images of the Sky at Night. Your neighbours might think that you are looking at them.