Some more astronomy

[Diane Miller]

There have been some good sky pictures lately. I missed the Milky way at the new moon due to major fog here, and weather and smoke from wildfires prevented a run west into Nevada. Then missed the Perseids because we were in LA hanging out with kids. (Night skies there aren't great.)

But I was going through some older images to make a slideshow and came across this one, which I decided to toss out. The lunar eclipse is the one of December 2010 (the stars are part of that exposure) combined with star trails shot some years ago with the original Canon 5D. The horizon and glow in the sky are from the star trail exposure, in the eastern Oregon desert. The glow is from distant fires, not sunrise.

I have more recent star trails with less noise (virtually none, by stacking short exposures) but I liked the glow and the way the trails faded out near the horizon. I'll deal with the noise someday.

C&C always welcome.

[Steve Adkins]

Unique and beautiful composition, Diane!! Love the combo of firelight, statics stars and trails.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Stunning image, Diane. The light from the fires really enhances the image. Beautiful work.:S3:

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Diane,

Greetings. Wow. That's a pretty spectacular shot. The color is something special. I particularly like the glow along the horizon, the color symmetry (glow, moon, trails) and the overall composition. Good show!

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Outstanding! Good thinking in combining these images. Love the orange glow on the horizon & the moon, and the streaks of color in the star trails.

[PhilCook]

Very effective, the Cajun Moon looks great in this off world looking image

[Judy Howle]

I think this is my favorite star trail image ever! Love the horizon glow and the moon. You have a most interesting composition!

[Kerry Perkins]

Diane, this is awesome! You have a really good sense of image combining to achieve dramatic results. Very well done! I agree with comments above, great image.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! It's fun to do stuff like this (as you all know).

The star trails here are badly in need of replacement. The old 5D had too much noise, and I can't even find the set of raw files to try to salvage more from them. Organization is so much better now with Lightroom, and especially with the new processing algorithms. Time to go shoot some again.

[gary ellwein]

Spectacular, agree with all comments above. I plan to be in eastern Oregon desert in a few weeks and will try some night photography.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks! Best of luck with it -- hope some of the fires are out by then. It has been very smoky, and I hear Idaho has some huge fires now. Hope you are safe. There is some beautiful country up there!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I like the static and the moving stars together. Neat juxtaposition. The composition is very effective.