Crescent moon, distant planet

"Reach a hand to the crescent moon
Grab hold of the hollow
If she sits in the palm of the left
That moon will be fuller tomorrow"

Crescent Moon, Cowboy Junkies, 1993

I love the sight of a crescent moon setting over distant hills in the deep blue twilght.  This image (cropped and resized) is from 18 Oct 2020.  The moon was setting over the ridgeline of Bristol Head.  The camera was a Sony A7.  Based on the image scale, the lens was likely a Tokina 100-300mm f/4 AT-X SD zoom with a Nikon mount.  ISO 1600, 1/20 s.

After twilight faded, some more images were made to test a Nikon 180mm ED Ai-S lens.

 

This image was obtained with the Nikon 180mm lens and an Olympus E-P5 camera.  ISO 1600, 60 s.  It is hard to point a camera or telescope at the heart of the Milky Way without capturing multiple objects in the same view.  This image contains M8 (the Lagoon Nebula), M20 (the Trifid Nebula), the open cluster M21, and several other clusters.

M31.  E-P5 + Nikon 180mm f/2.8 Ai-S.  ISO 1600, 60 s.

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is a magnet for astrophotographers.  It is physically about twice the size of our Milky Way galaxy, and is also BIG in the sky.  The white circle in the above image represents the size of a full moon.

At one time, Pluto was known as the ninth and most distant planet.  That changed after the discovery of Eris in 2005, which led to the eventual reclassification of Pluto (and Eris) as a dwarf planet. Eris is slightly smaller than Pluto, but more massive (and much fainter, at magnitude 18.6+). Regardless of what it is called, Pluto is still there, and a challenge for both visual and photographic identification. 

Pluto, 18 Oct 2020 1-deg FOV.  Nikon 180mm, ISO 1600, 60 s.

 Pluto is at the center of the white circle in the above image.  At that time it was about magnitude 14.4.  The similar-brightness star just to its left is magnitude 14.2.  The faintest stars in this image are about magnitude 16.