Interesting Photo of the Day: The Cosmic Triangle

Interesting Photos

We appreciate nature for all the beautiful landscapes and the great experiences we get to have while we trek through it. But, the universe is much more magical than how we normally think of it. As beautiful as life is on our planet, the world outside is equally magical. It’s just a shame that we don’t get to enjoy it with the naked eye. Of course, thanks to advancements in photography, cameras today are very much capable of showing us what lies beyond our sky. For instance, photographer Scott Aspinall came up with the following image that has our natural satellite, a neighboring planet, and a distant star cluster forming a cosmic triangle:

“The Cosmic Triangle” by Scott Aspinall (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

The image is a blend of several images that Aspinall took with his Nikon D800e, and a Tamron 70-200mm lens at 175mm. He also used a Star Adventurer Tracker to avoid star trails.

The foreground image is a stack of 12 images each exposed for 60 seconds at f/4 and ISO 800. For the image of Pleiades and Venus, he stacked 24 images, again exposing each one for 60 seconds, f/4, and ISO 800. And for the moon, he took a single exposure for 30 seconds in lunar tracking mode, f/6.7, and ISO 800.

It’s beautiful how Aspinall has decided to place the key elements in the image. With the tree at the center of the image, it’s immediately able to draw the viewer’s attention. And around this tree, he has placed the Moon, the Pleiades, and Venus forming a triangle. This geometry is what makes the image so effective.

It’s also interesting to see how the blue tones of the Pleiades contrast with the slightly orange tones of the Moon and Venus. This makes sense as the stars have a much higher temperature and give out their own light while the other two bodies are merely reflecting the sun’s light.

How amazing would it be if we could see the sky like this with the naked eye?