Big Jupe, Big Moon

The planet Jupiter (center) withstood the bright onslaught of a full moon as seen here looking east from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:12 PM, Tuesday, October 11, 2011. The apparent magnitude -2.88 Jupiter is in actuality 41 times larger than the moon, but is also about 460 million miles farther away. The 2.06 magnitude variable star Algol ("The Demon Star"), in the constellation Perseus, is seen at upper left. Clear skies of eastern Iowa were a contrast to the rainy skies in western Iowa at this hour and mild conditions prevailed (58 degrees F). The silhouetted tree in the foreground at left is an European Larch. This image is a composite of the background sky and the moon. The background was an 18-second exposure at f/6.3, 200 ISO and an 18mm focal length. The moon, 1/2,000-second exposure at f/5.6, 640 ISO and a 200mm focal length.