This is from a couple of years ago. I was at an out-of-town wedding for a cousin and spent two hours taking about 80 shots trying to get a combined moon and flag shot that I liked. I this is my favorite one, though it is noisier than most of them — a result of the tiny aperture that I used to get both the flag and the moon in focus. I was lying on the ground for most of the shots to get it framed the way I wanted.

When I was taking the shots for Crescent Moon and Crescent Venus two weeks ago, my younger daughter was helping me coordinate the camera and the telescope. At one point, she was running the camera and held the shutter down for an extended period of time, taking quite a few shots of Venus. I decided to merge all of those shots and the result is today’s shot. I considered taking the glow and color out, but my wife prefers this version.

The primary motion is from the rotation of Earth. The inconsistencies are almost certainly from the telescope not being completely stable.

I noticed the proximity of the Moon and Venus tonight and decided to take some shots. Actually, I’d already gotten the camera out to take some other shots and then noticed. I then decided to get the telescope out and take some pictures through it, but the field of view was too narrow to get both the Moon and Venus in the same shot. So the above picture is without the telescope. I chose it as one that shows Venus as a crescent. The two below, of each separately — where you can even more clearly see that Venus is also a crescent — were taken through the telescope. The one of the Moon was taken with the camera attached to the telescope, with the telescope serving as a fixed focal length lens for the camera (I forget, but something in the 800-1200 mm range). The shot of Venus, on the other hand, is handheld with a 50mm prime lens held up to a 32mm (or something similar) eye piece on the telescope. Tricky, and not the best quality, but the only way I have of getting more zoom.