Earthshine Sequence

The visibility of earthshine is a delicate balance between the clarity of the air and depth of twilight. In bright twilight the scattering overwhelms any detail. As it gets darker the contrast is better and it also allows longer exposures to record the fainter detail. The earthshine in the last image is much brighter than would be seen with the unaided eye. The exposure for the right image was 4 times that for the left image so the darkening of the sky background is also much greater than these images would suggest.

Canon EOS 20D 18th April 2007
Berkshire, England