First day of Spring in Big Sur

dereksurfs

For the first day of Spring I ran out at the last moment to catch the sunset in between our latest rainstorms. Unfortunately a cloud band formed on the horizon and killed chances for a really bright sunset. But I still liked the softer light in the sky looking south in this first shot.





In this second shot I was able to capture the stars from the same location ~ 1.5 hours later. Does anyone know what the really bright star/planet is on the right side? It was so bright it was actually creating a light source on this moonless night.

kdog

Man that second one is awesome, Derek. That's gotta be Jupiter. Brightest planet in the sky as far as I know.

Cheers,
-joel

dereksurfs

Thanks Joel, I was really surprised how bright that planet was compared to the others. I am definately no astronomer. However I posted it on another forum and several seem to think it is Venus. So I did a bit of googling. Based on some reading Venus is apparently the brightest planet in the sky next to the moon. It is also the closest to the earth the majority of the time depending on its orbit cycle. So I'm guessing this is a time when it is closer the earth.

http://www.universetoday.com/14447/what-is-the-closest-planet-to-earth/

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=564

willard3

I like no 1 and how soft the colors are.

chrisjohnson

Marvellous images. Thanks. Big Sur is one of my favorite places.

Sam

#2 is awesome!!!!! clap

Sam

Allan FG

The second one is very cool.

dereksurfs

Glad you guys liked them. Thanks for the comments. I was hesitant to post the two together since they are so different. Willard, glad you liked the first. It is definately more subtle than #2. But hey, that's nature for you and one of the reasons I love shooting it. The same location in only a matter of an hour or sometimes just minutes can look so different.

skippy77

how long was the exposure on that second shot it is stunning whats were the settings please thanks

dereksurfs

skippy77 wrote: »

how long was the exposure on that second shot it is stunning whats were the settings please thanks

Hi Skippy, this is actually two expsoures: one for the stars and one for the land and sea. The first is 30 seconds at ISO 3200. Usually over 30 sec. produces star trails. The second is 4 minutes too reduce noise using a lower ISO 1000. Both are at 17mm, f4 on a 5DII full frame.

skippy77

thanks for that want to give it a try how did u layer them both

FlyNavy

Number two is world class!

macgart

The night shot is absolutely killer!

Glenn5995

Very nice photos!

You are correct, the brightest planet is Venus. Jupiter is the bright planet below and slightly to the left of Venus in your photograph. They have been coming into "conjunction" since December with Jupiter starting above Venus and closing the distance (visually from earth) between them until they were in "conjunction" March 12-15, being separated by less than 3 degrees. Since then Jupiter has been below Venus with increasing distance until Jupiter will shortly drop out of view in the evening sky. Although these conjunctions between Venus and Jupiter are fairly common, occurring approximately every 13 months, this has been one of the more impressive conjunctions in recent years and for several years to come. In early March, Mercury was visible in the evening sky below Venus and Jupiter.

Other than the moon, Venus is the brightest light in the night sky, spending approximately 9.5 months visible in the evening sky and then 9.5 months visible in the morning sky and is therefore known as the "evening and morning star".

dereksurfs

Thanks all for the feedback. Glenn, thanks for the educational information about current planet orbits. That's great info.

redleash

Love #2!