Carranza Field Looking East

This is a view of Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on April 2, 2017, at 6:13 am EDT (28 minutes before sunrise). It looks toward the tree line a couple hundred yards east from my camera position near the southwest corner of the field. This is where I set up to observe a pair of comets, 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak and C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy), then ultimately, the planet Venus. Taken with a Canon 6D digital SLR camera (on a fixed tripod) and a Canon 40 mm f/2.8 STM "pancake" lens. Exposed of 1/5 second at f/2.8, ISO 800.

This is a the view a couple of minutes later, at 6:15 am EDT, from the same camera position with the same camera and lens, except that the camera is now tilted up, and a bit to the left of the view of the previous picture. It is also exposed for the sky, instead of the ground like the previous picture where the sky was completely washed out. Venus is just above the trees where where they angle up on the right, but is barely visible at this scale; however, Venus is readily visible in a crop of the bottom right corner as shown below. Taken with a Canon 6D digital SLR camera (on a fixed tripod) and a Canon 40 mm f/2.8 STM "pancake" lens. Exposed of 1/60 second at f/4, ISO 800 (which is 4.6 stops less exposure than the previous picture).

Here's a nominal 25% crop from the bottom-right corner of the picture above. Venus is now easily visible at 6.6° altitude.