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

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate