Moonlight Hunter

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 24, 2011234 views6 comments

The title of this refers to the constellation of Orion, the winter hunter striding over the young Potomac river in the Smoke Hole canyon in West Virginia. The scene is lit by a third quarter moon on a cold night in late October. The most prominent stars are Sirius, the brightest star in the sky just above the sycamores, the blue supergiant Rigel nearest to the center, and the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the upper center. An interesting aside concerning Betelgeuse is that is, in astronomical terms, about to go supernova. This could happen in one year or thousands of years from now but when it does because of its relative proximity to earth it will likely be the brightest extrasolar object seen in all of human history, an intense point of light brighter than the full moon and easily seen in broad daylight.

C&C welcome

Canon 50D, 10-22 lens, 10mm f/3.5 for 30s @1600

thanks for looking and please view the larger version

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on January 24, 2011 at 5:13 PM

Orion is a bit tough to make out--but i can definitely see the belt! Well, these night shots are brutally tough as you know. The lack of detail in the shadows may be realisitc, but it makes the fg somewhat unexciting. If it were possible, i might have tried making the stream the main fg subject, since at least the highlites there are picking up some moonlight. Cool shot, tho.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Stough on January 24, 2011 at 6:05 PM

Thanks for the comment Stan. Very helpful. As it happens I do have another comp that is more like you suggested. I was interested primarily in the sky and the starfield in the first shot but this post is more about the moonlight on the river.

Registered on November 20, 2010, 26 Posts, 273 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 24, 2011 at 6:33 PM

Robert,

I'm no digital guy and so I have zero experience with night photography... but from a laymen's point of view the sky looks pretty noisy and it seems there is some color defractions(if that's even a valid term) going on. I do like your setup very much and I think the original image works well with the foreground and river creating a decent base to the bigger scene which is the sky you wanted to capture. But I also like the horizontal.

Wish I could help with the noise, but I do think if it can be worked on, you should try.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Pelton on January 24, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Cool shot, Robert. I prefer the horizontal, but I agree the sky is more intriguing in the vertical.

Registered on November 25, 2003, 380 Posts, 4647 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Cordes on January 24, 2011 at 10:11 PM

I like the horizontal image better. My eye follows the stream and then up to the sky where the stars are more defined than in the original.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 451 Posts, 3366 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Roane on January 26, 2011 at 1:13 AM

pretty cool Robert. I think you could do a bit more noise redux on the sky

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments