Photo by Peter Enzerink
2000-09-30 8:00pm AEDT
Conditions: clear sky, no wind
Equipment:
- Kodak DC290 Digital Camera
- Vanguard video camera tripod
From left to right: Mercury, Venus and a very young Moon setting in the West not long after sunset. Photo was taken at f/3, ISO 100 with a 80mm aperture and exposed for eight seconds.
As a result of using a sufficiently long exposure to capture Mercury, the other bodies are rather overexposed. I will experiment with some post-exposure digital composition next time.
I also have another good example of how poorly my digital camera is for this kind of photography. This is an excellent happy snap and more serious use camera. It is however, poor for astrophotography in my opinion.
The shutter can be programmed to remain open for as long as sixteen seconds, but the noise from hot components in the camera obliterates one whole corner of the picture and radiates out for around half the area.
