This is the moon and Venus at sunset. It’s not an entirely realistic depiction, but that’s mainly because I didn’t alter it. In real life, Venus appears much brighter than this, but an exposure that captures the moon properly makes Venus appear dimmer than it really is.

Plus there’s the fact that I made the moon bigger just because I felt like it. Aside from size, though, it’s the actual moon from that image. Basically, I fixed the exposure manually to capture the moon properly (pro tip: f/11 at a shutter speed of 1/ISO usually works) and then took pictures until that exposure also captured the sunset well. Venus was the only loser from this because there was no single exposure that would get all three right at the same time.

May 17, 2018 — Irvine, California

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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