It doesn’t feel like Easter weekend with the “Stay at Home” in effect. I am used to celebrating the Sacred Triduum and the Mystery of Faith. Personally, watching Mass online or on the television isn’t the same. On Friday (Good Friday), the weather forecast was calling for winds out of the northwest, which brings cool crisp air to the south, a perfect time to practice my astrophotography skills. I drove down to Oriental and stay the night hoping to improve my astrophotography skills with the Nikon D7500. I used the Nikon DX AF-S NIkkor 55-300mm | 4.5-5.6 G ED zoom lens and Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm | 1.8 G lens. Let’s see how I did.
First, the sunset in Oriental from the Robert Scott Bridge on NC Route 55.
If I had a telescope, 90 minutes after sunset I could seen Venus in the Taurus Constellation in the western sky (around 2100). The best I could do was to take a pictures of Whittaker Creek after sunset.

Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 50mm
The moonrise was at 22:52 in the eastern sky. I practice some astrophotography and hoping to get a nice moonrise over the Neuse River. I took some pictures, but they did come out expected.
I was able to capture the nice photo the moon rising over the South River and there is bright spot before it full came over the horizon.

Shutter Speed: 8.0 seconds
Aperture: f/2
ISO: 1250
Focal Length: 50mm
In the morning, I got up early to see the moon set and sunrise.
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