20081113 Moon, M42, etc

In the mid-night I woke up, without looking at the clock, I looked out from the windows. I saw quite a lot of stars (just around 20 at most!!!) and this is a very rare scene here in Hong Kong, especially inside the urban center. Most people were sleeping with their light off, and the monsoon was blowing to clear up the dust in air, that created a unique opportunity. But at this kind of weird hours, it's hard to keep up especially when you have to work on the next day.

Anyway, I told myself, why not just have a short look?

I first noticed that the moon was hanging near a distant building, "so why not take a shot?", I asked myself. And I took my Canon 450D out and attached my Kenko 2x as well as the Canon 200mm f2.8L on it. Spot metering should be fine, I opened the window, felt the cool breeze outside, what a great feeling! Press the shutter, looked at the final image, the moon was so bright that when it was correctly exposed, the building was totally absent. So, I waited around 2 minutes and shoot again. This time, since the moon was blocked partially by the building, it's just not as bright and the silhouette of the building was superimposed on the moon, and I could see some lovely craters on the other side of the moon. What a view!





Next, I tried to point my lens to M42, I could see some nebulosity! I pulled out my Canon 10x30 IS, resting my arms on the window frame, wow! What a nice view! Then I press the IS button, the stars were nearly resolved, but you know, it's just 10x, I couldn't ask for more.

Then, I told myself it's time to stop, or else I will have a hard day! It's truely relaxing...