foggypreacher Loc: Dickinson, Texas

I noticed this morning how beautiful this alignment is. I want to try to capture it tomorrow morning. What type of lens and settings are best to use? Very new to this. thank you for any constructive advice.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

Check out Isaguy's post just before yours

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Can you provide a link to that post? There is no way of finding "just before" posts as everyone is viewing the forum differently.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

Go to "newest topics"; it's right under yours

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

It’s under:
“I learned something at 0 dark 30”

SonyBug

Shooting night sky several years ago, I used a 14mm lens, at 2.8, iso 100 and 18 seconds. Try that to start. I also did not worry about red light to see, as I was the only one in the field, so used a flashlight to set things up.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I went out to try to take a look last night, but it was too cloudy here. Anyway...you will find that these three planets are substantially brighter than the stars in the field around them, which complicates things a little bit. You will need visible stars around the planets to provide context and interest in your image, but the exposure for to render the stars will probably burn the planets quite a bit. I can't remember what camera you have (I know we've talked about it before), but you may want to try a couple of different approaches here. The moon is also going to be a complicator in the equation, since ordinary daytime exposure combinations are appropriate for it.

The first would be to adjust a normal sky exposure down a little bit in order to get better results with the planets. If your camera has good dynamic range, you can rely on that and bring the stars back up in post processing. I've done this before, and it works reasonably well with a camera like the D810 or the D850, even though it requires some work and can be a little bit tricky. Since my normal exposure would be something like 25 seconds at ISO 4000 and f2.8, I'd suggest maybe 8-10 seconds at ISO 4000, especially since you are probably going to be using a longer lens. Be sure to set your white balance to 5800K, or even a little bit higher. Mars has a characteristic red color, and Jupiter renders somewhere between red and yellow, and the color of both planets will be lost if you use 4000K like so many people erroneously suggest for night skies.

The second strategy, and I've not done this in this situation, would be to capture two images...one optimized for the stars, using something like my normal exposure above, and a second exposure using the adjusted exposure, or maybe even a little bit less, then combine them either using layers or as an HDR stack.

I can't remember exactly where you are, but the biggest challenge you are going to face right now, depending on where you are located, is going to be moisture in the air from the normal elevated spring humidity levels. The least amount of stray light, including light from the moon anywhere in the sky, is going to get directed back to your lens by the tiny water particles and spoil the dark areas of your images unless you get especially lucky. There is a cold front coming to our area on Friday. Right after it passes, you may have your best opportunity through dry air if there is no moon in the sky.

Don't forget the basic principles of night photography...manual exposure, manual focus (either focus at infinity before sunset and tape it down or send an assistant out 400 feet or so with a flashlight and focus on him), and preserve your night vision. Go out before you plan to shoot, set up, and enjoy the sky for 30 minutes before shooting. And that red light is not for others...it is for you. If you are exposed to white light, your night vision will be disrupted for 30-45 minutes before it fully recovers. The red light will avoid that. Capture your images as raw files and plan on doing some post processing, at least in LightRoom. JPEG isn't going to work for this.

foggypreacher Loc: Dickinson, Texas

Many thanks to all. Unfortunately, the next night was cloudy so I was not able to try any of your suggestions. Next opportunity I will give them a try.