Just have a look at this to inspire you!

Dave,

The problem is that the moon is way too low and too near the horizon. Yes, such a photo with the relative sizes is doable with the use of a telephoto lens or short focal length refractor but the problem remains where the moon at its lowest along the ecliptic is still a good 20-30 degrees above the horizon when passing the meridian and this composite grossly omits this fact.

It would have been better if a rising moon at around 20 degrees altitude was used for something similar. The angle of Mare Crisium would have been right, the terminator would have been placed right (facing due south and towards the city) and there would be lots of flexibility as to the low placement of the moon relative to the city lights.

I don't mean to be critical but there are ways to make a very artistic composite which is also correct physically/astronomically and which otherwise would be a distraction.

Anthony.

PS. It is also very unfortunate that a handful of stars are shining through the lunar disk. It is a two-second task to get rid of them perfectly and yet it was not done.

I thought the moon/city shot looked scary... The moon was way too large. The lake shot was nice but quickly spoiled when you considered the lack of reflection.

Still, as long as this person enjoys doing this kind of imaging, let them at it.

Personally, I'd prefer something that was real but still had the wow factor e.g:

www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOWCASE/SKYLINE.HTM

Of course, the debate around image processing rages unabated. Minor (or even major) tweaks to levels, balance etc are fine. Adding/deleting pixels or groups of pixels, (other than cropping and dead/hot pixels) would be a road I personally wouldn't go too far down. I'm sure we could all find a particularly attractive landscape shot and slap a moon in the middle of it and get the wow factor. (Assuming you remove the stars shining through )

So, the images only have a novelty factor in my opinion. The likes of Anthony's images - they have the 'real' wow factor. Because they are real....

And I'm not saying this because Anthony is on this board

Cheers

Dave