Scott, the human eye has a much greater dynamic range that film or electronic chips. That is why we can see the part of the young moon illuminated by "earthshine", and the bright solar-illuminated crescent at the same time, while in pictures, either the crescent is completely over-exposed or the earthshine-illuminated part is underexposed and black. You can't get both the bright and dark regions optimally exposed in the same frame. This is the same thing that I see in the wildfire photo on your Website. Using a digital camera, it is possible to combine separate images, each exposed for different regions of the frame, to obtain a final image with optimally-exposed light and dark regions. Using conventional photography, one can "burn" and "dodge" the exposure on the photographic paper, on the enlarger when making a print. But it is not really possible to expose both bright and dark regions optimally on the same frame, either digitally or using emulsion-based photography. There is no filtration, AFAIK, that will accomplish this, either. But using the right Neutral-Density filter, or shortening the exposure, should reduce what you are calling "glare" to acceptable levels. Just remember that the darker portions of the frame will be darker also. Does his help at all? Don't give up! On 6/25/07, Scott A. Holdsworth <scott@uwdh.com> wrote:

I have a question about taking pictures through a telescope.

I have taken a few pictures of planets and the moon. Still learning about how to do it right.

http://uwdh.com/beyondtheeyes/

The pictures seem to be decent, but I find it hard to not get glares from the light in the camera.

For example, Venus for the last few weeks has been visible and I can see it clearly with my eyes through the telescope. But when I take a picture it just glares.

Last night I observed this again with the fire on Lake Mountain (West of Utah Lake) from my home and I saw the same effect. Perfect with my eyes, but a lot of glare with the camera.

What filter or other tool can I use to reduce the glare so my camera can capture the true picture?

Also, what filters do I need for what objects in the sky?

<http://www.uwdh.com/beyondtheeyes> _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com