Moon Photos

[sailmike]

I finally got a chance to get my own photo of the moon and I think it came out ok. It may be a bit out of focus, but that could be because there were some high thin clouds at the time. This was taken with a Nikon D200 with a 300mm lenses and an extender to bring the focal length to 600mm. I'd like to see others photos of the moon, so please post yours.

 

[sunward]

How long was the exposure?

 

[Zeus-cat]

Looks good, I've never tried taking photos of the moon. I should as I have a Canon 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens and a 2x converter.

I would also be interested in your settings.

 

[WiK]

EXIF data says 1/6th sec, F/11 @ ISO 400.

Been meaning to try some photos of a partial moon for ages, but the weather here has been less than cooperative lately. Got a couple of the full moon, but you don't get the same shadow detail around the craters.

Phil

 

[sailmike]

Yeah those were the settings I used. One of these days I'd like to try getting a photo of the moon through my telescope.

Mike

 

[WiK]

Here's one hot off the memory card while out looking for Perseids tonight.

https://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6263/mg4203e.jpg

Canon EOS 40d, Canon 70-300mm IS at 300mm. 1/6th sec, f/16 and ISO 100.

Not quite as sharp as I'd like, but the best I managed.

Phil

 

[sailmike]

That looks great! Looks a bit sharper than mine. I may try again tonight, but I'd have to stay up till about 1 am.

Mike

 

[DMcCauley]

Looks good.

Just a few suggestions. Looks like some of the highlights are blown out, so you can use a shorter exposure and underexpose it. Underexposing is okay.

Then in photoshop (or similar program) simply do the following:

1. Set black point (background sky) to 0,0,0 (or 10,10,10 etc... if you don't want completely black sky background)
2. Set white point (bright area on moon) to 255,255,255
This should balance your image a bit more (levels adjustment with histogram will also do this as well)
3. You can also set a grey point which will remove color tone from the moon.
4. Finally, do an unsharp mask to sharpen up the craters etc...

Here is a sample moon image i took several years ago using the above procedure.

 

[DMcCauley]

Or here is another with an almost full moon, although there is still some detail in the terminator at the bottom.

 

[sailmike]

Those shots are great! Thanks for the tips, I'll try them. Do you have any tips for through the telescope shots?

Mike

 

[DMcCauley]

Those shots are great! Thanks for the tips, I'll try them. Do you have any tips for through the telescope shots?

Mike

You mean for the Moon?
The Moon is easy. Just hook your camera up via a T-adapter (specific for your camera type i.e. Nikon) and expose just long enough to have your histogram centered.

However, if you have somewhat dark skies, try a 30 second exposure on a fixed tripod using a wide lens such as a 15-20mm. This is more than enough to capture the full milkyway, nebula, and other goodies with minimum trailing such as in the photo below: