New lens - astrophotography

Here's where the new lens really shines! Its ability to allow so much light in means that I can get pretty good pictures of the stars without a tripod. On a boat that's swinging on anchor and wobbling in the swell. This is really impressive!

Of course, it also really shows the limitations of the lens - lots of chromatic aberration (which shows up as purple fringing around bright points of light).

Above is the quarter moon without clouds obscuring it. This picture is over-exposed (operator error on my part), so there isn't much detail available.

Above is the same moon partially obscured by clouds. It has a folklore feel to it, like we need to be on the lookout for werewolves.

This image is looking up the mast to a star field featuring Jupiter at the center. Our mast is in the upper left of the image, with the anchor light at the top illuminating the wind vane. You can just make out the rigging going straight down to the bottom of the image and angled to the upper left corner of the image. Most of the stars are seen through a very light layer of clouds.

And finally, the answer to the question about the image at the top of the article:

This is the constellation of Orion. It's tilted sideways, but you can see the belt and sword. If I turn down the contrast and rotate it 90 degrees, it pops out more clearly. The red arrows are pointing to the belt and sword.