Moon Photography Tips?

I'm trying to take pix of the moon using: A Rebel XT w/ a Sigma 70-300mm DG
lens any tips? Other than buying a real lens? tx blah

 

Wait until the moon is not so full, the craters show up much better
then.
And use a tripod and the mirror lockup function with the self timer.
Bracket your exposures by a lot.

Scott

 

Not much to offer aside from the bleeding obvious:

* tripod essential
* moon as high as possible to avoid atmospherics
* bracket widely. "Sunny sixteen" is theoretically optimal, but not always
the best.
* long exposures (over 1/2 sec) will show movement
* 300mm is definitely marginal
* don't trust the infinity setting on your lens. At wide open it may be off.
* full moon is the least impressive phase. Craters are unimpressive then,
but the mare can be pretty
* very young moon (~2-3 days) can be very nice, if you expose for earthshine
* anywhere between 3-12 or 16-26 days old will show the terminus craters
nicely (i.e. you want a crescent moon)

Others will disagree, but I wouldn't bother with teleconverters. I've found
them to be the "digital zoom" of SLRs.

Here's a few of mine with a 600mm mirror lens:

http://faxmentis.org/html/jovebyday.html
(daylight, with Jupiter)

http://faxmentis.org/html/moonbyjove.html
(night-time, with Jupiter and *his* moons)

http://faxmentis.org/html/earthshine.html
(2 days old - with earthshine)

http://faxmentis.org/html/science7c.html
(*Not* dSLR - montage of el-cheapo webcam shots)

These pages have links to many more.

The moon is a fun subject. Its unlikely you'll capture anything truly
original, but it is very satisfying nonetheless.

Post processing will be essential - but don't oversharpen as I always do.

 

A Photographic Image Quality Test Using the Moon
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/moon-test1

(uses 300 mm lens.)

Roger

 

You'll probably need to use manual exposure as I have found the 2 stop
compensation on the 350D/Rebel XT not enough. You can see a result
(cropped) with my 350D and Canon 100-400 lens at:
<http://digitalimagemakerworld.com/2006/04/11/moon-with-my-canon-350d-and-100-400mm-zoom/>

Use mirror lockup and a good tripod. My exposure was 1/125 sec at f11
and 100ISO

Cheers,

Wayne

 

Bracket, use a "hat trick" for exposures. Lock up the mirror, open the
shutter, hold a piece of
dark cardboard in front of the lens and use it as the shutter for
exposures of 1/10 sec or slower.

Here's a shot taken with an Olympus and a 1000mm, no drive.
http://www.pbase.com/andersonrm/image/65063908

 

then you obviously have no experience in long exposure photography/imaging.

 

Perhpas Pete was noting (in contrast to Rich's advice) that there is no need
for long exposures when shooting the moon. Rich implies otherwise, but he
is wrong. Quite the opposite. An unobstructed moon is itself nearly as
bright as a sunny day, and need only be adjusted for slightly more exposure.
Sunny 16 minus no more than a stop or so it enough.

 

An unobstructed moon is itself nearly as

Which reminds me of Ansel Adams' comment about shooting "Moonrise over
Hernandez, New Mexico."
He was in a hurry to shoot it since the light was fading. So rather than
take the time to meter, he simply referred to the rule of thumb for shooting
on a sunny day (I don't recall what it was, but based on the speed of the
film, it was a specific aperture/shutterspeed combo).
His logic: "It's a sunny day on the moon, right?"

He also said he's glad he acted so quickly because the light on the cemetery
crossses had faded before he had chance to reload his view camera and take
another shot.

 

Actually it's not rubbish. It is an old method since the
dawn of the camera age. I have old astrophoto books that
actually refer to the method as the "hat trick exposure"
showing a person with the style common in the first half
of the 20th century using his hat to cover the front
of a telescope.

Regarding exposure, sunny 16 refers to full moon.
This page, http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/moon-test1
shows near first quarter, best exposures around
1/50 sec at f/8 at ISO 100. With telescopes and more
magnification, and lower speed (e.g. ISO 50 which many
digital cameras have). one often gets in the 1/5 to 1.4
second range near the terminator on the moon.
Even the above 1/50 at f/8, ISO 100 becomes 1/6 at
f/16 ISO 50. At extreme magnifications, above about
1500 mm, even with mirror lock-up, a shutter actuation
could cause vibration unless the mount and telescope/lens is
massive.

Note, however, exposures longer than about 1/10 second
begin to show motion blur due to the rotation of the
earth (1/10th at high magnification), so you need a tracking
mount.

Roger

 

Thanks for all of you tips I'll try tonight!

 

Tsk, tsk. The sad, sad bleating of the clueless. The "hat trick" has
been used for decades
by people seeking to isolate high power lenses from any vibratation.
The "shutter" is completely isolated from the lens and camera, thereby
inducing zero vibration.

 

Note I said sunny 16 plus a stop or so.

 

1/10 s is not long; the hat works well for tens of seconds to tens of
minutes, and up but for a tenth of a second... Besides that is far to
long for bright sunlight unless you have a very low ISO setting (I don't
think any non-astronomical digital camera goes that low), or the
aperture is so small you can not resolve anything).

 

So does my MLU. Tell you what, I took a shot of the full moon last night
with my method, posted here, show us yours Rich.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete_with_pentax/263239993/

 

What is that? A ball of cheddar cheese you threw up in the air?

Greg

 

Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) skrev:

Yes, but you wouldn't contemplate using it for photographing a full
moon without a telescope, right?

Yes. And the OP, we can safely assume, wants to shoot the moon now. And
today the moon is full.

Jan Böhme

 

Was almost red earlier, see Joans pictures.

 

Might also remind you Rich that this is the rec.photo.digital.slr-systems
group, not the hat.on.a.a.camera group

 

Hmm.... Fuller moon than you'll see this month:
4 seconds at f/8 ISO 200. Guess what method I used for exposure?
Yes, it was the old "hat trick" with a telephoto lens and a DSLR.

http://www.clarkvision.com/gallerie...11.09.2003_IMG_0992-0133-utc.c-0.67x-872.html

;-)

Roger