Venus

[Klitos]

Here's one for absolute beginners, or those who think you need expensive equipment to do astronomy.

The beautiful planet Venus is now so close to the Earth that you can make out its crescent shape with just a hand-held pair of binoculars. I took this photo this evening with nothing more than a cheap point-and-shoot compact camera with a 15x zoom.

(ISO 100, f/5.3, 1/40 s, plus a bit of contrast enhancement on the PC to bring out the tree branches. For better results, a slightly shorter exposure may have been advisable.)