Chirag Upreti shot this photo of the very recognizable constellation Orion the Hunter – known for its colorful and bright stars – in late December 2016 at Croton Point Park in New York. He used the bokeh effect, a way of shooting to keep part of the photo soft and out-of-focus. Chirag wrote:
Orion could be seen peeking just beyond the winter foliage. I wanted to capture the color spectrum between its stars, especially Betelgeuse, Meissa and Rigel that are distinct along with the winter foliage in the foreground.
The stars are deliberately out of focus to accentuate their colors, while keeping the foliage in focus. This is a ‘bokeh effect’ and turns out it works really well on celestial bodies!
Sony A6000, 55mm, f/4.5, 4 sec exposure at ISO 4000
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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