Using PhotoScape X, I cropped the photo to highlight the principals--Moon, Mercury, Spica--and slightly sharpened the focus. Lake Winnebago, the coming sun and the atmosphere above the horizon supplied the rest. The visible shoreline is between 7 to 9 miles from the camera.

I live on the south side of Oshkosh, Wisc. When I woke in the early morning hours of Nov. 3, I grabbed my gear and walked down to a public boat landing on the western shore of Lake Winnebago, the largest inland lake in Wisconsin. The waning 28-day-old moon was 2.2% illuminated when I shot this image at 6:15 a.m. CDST. The longer exposure captured earthshine, elusive Mercury over the horizon, and the first magnitude star Spica to the right. The moon's reflection on the water completes the image.