MOON IN HYADES WITH CORONA Taken by Alan Dyer on April 18, 2018 @ near Gleichen, Alberta

This was the waxing crescent Moon in the Hyades star cluster and below reddish Aldebaran in Taurus, on April 18, 2018.

Light cloud so often present at such events added the colourful lunar “corona” around the bright crescent, while sunlight reflected off the Earth added the glow of Earthshine to the dark side of the Moon, making it visible.

All are set in the deep blue of late evening twilight.

There was an occultation of Aldebaran this night but not from my location in Alberta. It was visible from locations far to the north and west in Canada and Russia.

This is a 7-exposure stack of images from 1/5-second to 3.2-seconds, bracketed at 2/3-stop intervals, blended with luminosity masks. I neglected to take even shorter exposures for the properly exposed crescent itself. Alas! On the other hand, the overexposed bright crescent goes with the colourful corona, as the bright crescent is its source.

All with the 200mm telephoto at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400, and tracked on the Sky Watcher Mini tracker.