Fixed Tripod - Wide Angle Lens Twilight Scenic The exposure is relatively short in this image because the twilight sky was bright. The trick to taking this kind of photo is to wait until the sky is dark enough to see the bright stars, but still bright enough to have some color in the twilight sky from the sunset.

The winter constellations, along with elusive Mercury, set in the fading twilight of a late April evening.

Orion is at left, the Hyades at center, and the Pleiades at right. Below the Pleiades, about halfway to the horizon, is the planet Mercury, shining at magnitude 0.1, some 20 degrees away from the Sun which had already set.

This single 20-second exposure at f/4 at ISO 1600 was shot with the camera on a fixed tripod. It was taken with the inexpensive, but surprisingly good 18-55mm zoom lens that comes with the Canon 1000D (Digital Rebel XS) camera.

A Tiffen Double Fog 3 filter was used to make the bright stars stand out.

Image Data

• Lens / Scope: Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Zoom IS lens
• Focal Length: 23mm
• F/stop: f/4
• Exposure: Single 20-second exposure
• Mount: Fixed tripod
• Guiding: None
• Camera: Unmodified Canon EOS 1000D (Digital Rebel XS)
• Mode: JPEG
• ISO: 1600
• White Balance: Daylight
• In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off
• Filter: Tiffen Double Fog 3
• Temp: Not recorded
• Start Time: 8:59 p.m.
• Date: April 24, 2009
• Location: Tuckahoe State Park, MD
• Calibration: None
• Processing: Standard in-camera JPEG processing.