Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "skyscapes" that connect Earth and the night sky. Join Miguel here as he takes us through his photograph "A Perfect Triangle Between the Moon, the Pleiades and Venus."
A beautiful crescent moon with visible earthshine forms a triangle with the Pleiades star cluster and the bright planet Venus just after sunset in this twilight scene. The image was captured in Campinho village, near the headquarters of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve in Portugal.
The moon appears immersed in the stars of the Hyades, an open star cluster — or a loosely bound group of stars — located in the constellation Taurus. About 9 degrees to the right of the moon is the Pleiades star cluster, whose brightest stars are commonly known as the Seven Sisters. Venus, the second brightest object in the night sky, is about 8 degrees down from the Pleiades and 12 degrees away from the crescent moon. [Skywatcher Photos: Dazzling Views of Venus & the Moon]
In the foreground, the water of Alqueva Lake — the largest human-made lake in Europe, spanning approximately 100 square miles (250 square kilometers) — reflects beautiful shades of blue and orange in the nautical twilight.
I captured this photo just a few minutes after sunset on April 18, 2018, using a Canon 6D DSLR camera with a 24- to 70-mm lens set to 61 mm, an aperture set to f/3,2, an ISO setting of 800 and an exposure time of 1.3 seconds.
Editor's note: If you captured an amazing astronomy photo and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
To see more of Claro's amazing astrophotography, visit his website, www.miguelclaro.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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