I need your knowledge please

mikew

mikew

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Right this is not a wind up,there has to be a reason and i would like to know what it is.

About 4.30 am taking my wife to work we where looking at the stars,loads to see it was fairly clear,there was what looked like a cluster of maybe 5 extra bright stars close together,they never moved and where still visible after i got back home about 4.50 am,i eventually decided to try for a picture but we do have a lot of light pollution.

Looking at the lights with the naked eye it was still a cluster of about 5 but the image i got was more like the moon i took the first picture then a bit later the second which i have cropped,i can accept it was possibly the moon but why would it look like separate lights to the naked eye.

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I will say again and please believe me its not a wind up,by about 6am there was nothing in that position.
 
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mikew said:
About 4.30 am taking my wife to work we where looking at the stars,
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Never had you down as the old romantic type ... sure it wasn't the twinkle in her eyes you saw? :D
 
It can't be the moon as its not full till the 28th and a total lunar eclipse early Monday 28th. There is a bright cluster of stars call The Pleiades or Severn Sisters. Could this possibly be what you were seeing?
 
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MartinCornwall said:
It can't be the moon as its not full till the 28th and a total lunar eclipse early Monday 28th. There is a bright cluster of stars call The Plaides or Severn Sisters. Could this possibly be what you were seeing?
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Only if they would take up the same area in the sky when viewed as the moon would,i guess the camera maybe couldn't record the dark bits in between so i ended up with a circle of light on the sensor,these where many times brighter than the average star,you are talking to some one who only ever looks at the stars and thinks they look great,thats the extent of my knowledge.
 
MartinCornwall said:
It can't be the moon as its not full till the 28th and a total lunar eclipse early Monday 28th. There is a bright cluster of stars call The Plaides or Severn Sisters. Could this possibly be what you were seeing?
Click to expand...

Just searched for images and although most of the ones i found are enlarged it looks possible,thanks
 
Just corrected my spelling of The Pleiades. The following photo is of them, ignore the star trailing as it is a heavy crop from a wide angle star trail set that I was doing. If you can only see the 5 bright ones then it is down to your light pollution as you mentioned.

159GannelPaladies18112014.jpg
 

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i eventually decided to try for a picture but we do have a lot of light pollution.

Now you have started astrophotography, it can be addictive ;)


I will say again and please believe me its not a wind up,by about 6am there was nothing in that position.[/QUOTE]

The stars move and some set just like the sun and the moon.
 
I think you have solved it,will look again in the morning,thanks.
 
The Pleiades would be quite high up and to the south at that time in the morning, so take note of the direction. What settings did you use for your shots? With something like a 135mm lens if you crank the iso up and use a tripod you should get a reasonable image with only a few seconds exposure (experiment). If you used a longer lens (increased magnification), or too long an exposure (star movement) or handheld (camera movement) you could well end up with a complete blur. I'm not sure I'd call the Pleiades 'extra bright', but then I'm used to looking at them. If there was 'nothing in that position at 6 am' it could only be that they'd moved and you were looking in the wrong place or it was getting just too light. The Pleiades don't set till well into the day now. I didn't look out south at 6 am this morning, only east where there was a very bright headlight in the sky called Venus!
 
Jannyfox said:
The Pleiades would be quite high up and to the south at that time in the morning, so take note of the direction. What settings did you use for your shots? With something like a 135mm lens if you crank the iso up and use a tripod you should get a reasonable image with only a few seconds exposure (experiment). If you used a longer lens (increased magnification), or too long an exposure (star movement) or handheld (camera movement) you could well end up with a complete blur. I'm not sure I'd call the Pleiades 'extra bright', but then I'm used to looking at them. If there was 'nothing in that position at 6 am' it could only be that they'd moved and you were looking in the wrong place or it was getting just too light. The Pleiades don't set till well into the day now. I didn't look out south at 6 am this morning, only east where there was a very bright headlight in the sky called Venus!
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Thanks,its there again this morning but i will not be taking pictures,my wife would kill me if i got into any thing else apart from wildlife,i would find loads of stuff i couldn't manage with out ;) as most of us photographers do.
 
Although you said you did not want to get into another area of photography it becomes easier as the year progresses - nice and dark early in the evening. One helpful and free download is Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

Dave
 
I've only done a small amount of night time photography, but I found condensation on the lens to be a real issue. That's likely why you are seeing a single orb rather than the individual stars. If you try again, make sure you keep a lens cloth handy ;)
 
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