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Moon shot tonight 4/8/14


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Beautiful shot.  What equipment did you use?  and what settings? 

 

I tried my first attempt at a moon shot a few weeks ago with a 75-300 mm lens  on a Nikon T3 with limited success. 

Thanks.

 

For this one:

Tripod a must!

Manual mode

f/11

1/50

ISO 100

Tamron 70-300mm lens

Manual focus

10 second timer

 

Cropped and slight WB adjustment in Photoshop Elements.

 

My A77 also has 2 Focal Length magnification options, 1.0x and 2.0x.

I used 2.0x for this one so 35mm focal length is 900mm.

Having 24 mega pixels also helps when cropping.

 

Try a few different exposer times.

Half-moons work better than full for details IMO.

 

Post some moon pic’s when complete :)

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Thanks.

 

For this one:

Tripod a must!

Manual mode

f/11

1/50

ISO 100

Tamron 70-300mm lens

Manual focus

10 second timer

 

Cropped and slight WB adjustment in Photoshop Elements.

 

My A77 also has 2 Focal Length magnification options, 1.0x and 2.0x.

I used 2.0x for this one so 35mm focal length is 900mm.

Having 24 mega pixels also helps when cropping.

 

Try a few different exposer times.

Half-moons work better than full for details IMO.

 

Post some moon pic’s when complete :)

 

Great,  thanks for the details!  Trial and error seem to be the toughest part for me when trying to learn all of this.  I must have taken dozens of pics at different ISO settings and exposure times.  I'll see if I can get out tonight to see if I can get any shots.

 

Thanks again!

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I find the "looney-11 rule" (which allows for one stop of additional light over the sunny-16 rule) works well for most standard moon shots, though sometimes I open up to f/8 or f/9.5 to avoid aperture diffraction and adjust my exposure from there.

 

It's definitely a good idea to get your lunar closeups during a partial phase, when shadows accentuate the moon's topography... much like how visible satellite images in the middle of the day look washed out and flat.

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can you post ur exif data?

looks a little out of focus.

did you use a tripod? timer? manual focus?

 

I can get the exif data this evening when I get back home, but IIRC it was:

f/11

1/100 (or 1/125)

ISO100

EF 75-300mm lens

tripod

manual focus

2 second timer

 

I'm using a Cannon Rebel EOS T3 that is 12.2 MP, so when I crop, it doesn't have nearly the resolution as your photo.  It is a bit out of focus, but I'm glad I can at least see some features :lol:  all the other pics I have tried turned out like a white blurry mess

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taken last night....once again with a cheap $99 Coolpix L320  

 

any recommendations of a camera with better zoom and quality are appreciated. 

 

It's awesome how ordinary cameras these days are just as powerful as older telescopes. 

Ideally you'd want to invest in a basic DSLR system (essentially a camera body that employs interchangeable lenses). It might be a big leap, but if you're willing to bite the bullet and spend $1k on solid kit, I would recommend the Nikon D5200 and two lenses, the Nikkor 18-55 mm and the Nikkor 55-200 mm. You'll be able to practice basic astrophotography with the telephoto zoom lens, and get into landscapes/portraits with the standard zoom. The benefit of a DSLR over a point-and-shoot or a compact system is that you can upgrade your lenses and accessories indefinitely to keep up with your increasing skill.

 

Feel free to message me with questions. Photography is a source of income for me so I have a reasonably good grasp on Nikon and Canon equipment.

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1601416_518375248284050_1426969751_n.jpg

 

I took this one a few months ago.

 

Nikon D5100

kit lens (AF-S VR 18-55mm)

tripod

10 sec timer

ridiculous amounts of cropping

 

I'm 95% certain I had it at 55mm, can't remember the aperture setting. Haven't purchased a telephoto lens yet so this is the best I can do. The f/1.8 35mm wouldn't work too well.

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Bacon, good glass helps so maybe get a body only and a nice lens or 2. 

300mm is also nice for wildlife.

Check out www.dpreview.com great site for reviews and forums.

 

April 13th, 8:16pm.

This was the night before blood moon night but then the storm moved in so will need to wait for next lunar.

post-455-0-87316000-1397788664_thumb.jpg

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can you post ur exif data?

looks a little out of focus.

did you use a tripod? timer? manual focus?

 

Ok, finally remembered to grab the data.

 

Dimensions: 4272 x 2848

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3

color representation: sRGB

F-stop:  f/11

exposure:  1/200 sec

ISO: 200

Exposure bias: 0 step

Focal length: 300 mm

no flash

white balance: auto

exposure program: manual

 

This is for the original photo.  The one I posted was a cropped version.

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  • 2 weeks later...

taken last night....once again with a cheap $99 Coolpix L320  

 

any recommendations of a camera with better zoom and quality are appreciated. 

 

It's awesome how ordinary cameras these days are just as powerful as older telescopes. 

 

A DSLR has already been mentioned and that is no doubt one of the best ways to go, but if you can't afford that I would invest in a cheap refractor telescope. I took this one through my 6" reflector using my Coolpix S3200 but I've seen some stellar images come through smaller scopes. Just point the scope and shoot through the lense. 

 

1549561_680205155344933_402593411_n.jpg

 

Also done in the same fashion: M44 (Orion nebula)

1044011_682594985105950_1886279870_n.jpg

 

It's a very crude way of doing it and you are limited to the brighter objects but it comes in quite a bit cheaper than investing in an entire DSLR set-up, which for a broke college student like myself is a giant bonus. 

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