the moon & stars January Moon

I know - another moon post. I wanted to see of the cold January air

gave a better image than the warmer months.

Details: 1/200s, ISO 200, f/9 at 300mm on a tripod

Brian, I love the moon! And I appreciate the time and talent it takes to capture an image such as this! It's gorgeous! Keep shooting and thank you for sharing. Best Regards, Doug.

She is always there, sometimes in full roundness and glory,

Sometimes cloaked in darkness with just a sliver to gaze upon,

Watching over us, lighting the sky in the darkest of moments,

She is a reflection, and without her we are loss............

Hi, is it better in cold or warm air? I've been trying my hand at the moon lately, and I find colder air makes better moon photo, but since I live in the city, pollution is another problem.

Cheers, Francois S.

Doug,

Thanks for the muse. I have a lot of pictures of the Moon, but I still enjoy taking them.

Francois,

This seems a little sharper to me when I did some quick comparisons. I still need to take the time to seriously compare them side-by-side. I imagine the cold air would make an even bigger difference in a place where pollution is more prevalent...

HI Brian

This is a very good image, mate! ... In answer to cold air -v- warm air, well the best way to judge the atmosperic condition is this one important, yet, simple observation.

If the stars are 'Twinkling' then the atmosphere is too unsteady for high resolution images. The twinkling is caused by the different air temp of the upper (cold) and lower (warm) atmosphere shifting together causing light to bend and refract. This degrades magnified images greatly.

The best time is when the Stars are NOT twinkling :)

There are some other tricks too ... like, if your shooting from you back yard try NOT to shoot over the house roof next door. Buildings shed heat at night, in Summer its stored heat from the day, and in Winter its the internal heating. This causes rippled air currents and you'r trying to shoot through them. Its like lying on your back on the bottom of a pool and looking up through moving surface water.

Hope this makes sense :)

If you would like some other tips just let me know and i'll email them to you.

We in Australia have a different view of the moon, yours is upside down! ... lol.

P.s. Thanks for your outstanding comment on my Moon image!

HI Brian I stopped over from Tonys portfolio since we had a nice conversation on Moon pics last night I thought I would check yours out too ;) Nice job on this one, nice & crisp with good detail & contrast going on. Seems you & I are using the equivalent lens ( I use the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 glass) for my moon shots LOL. Great lens but mine is a little soft at 300mm but I plan on FINE TUNING it with my D300 once I figure out what exact settings I need to adjust on it. I enjoyed looking at your portfolio, nice body of work you have here.

Hey Brian, I'm back with a treat ! Well you had posted over on my portfolio that MAYBE We could get lucky with the weather and capture the Lunar Eclipse, Well I GOT IT ! Here's a sample - I'm still processing all the shots I took (Over 400 during 3.5 hours) and I'll be posting them on my site in a few days, but here's one of the better ones for now to wet your appetite. How did you make out ?

Thanks Bill,

Nice capture! I did okay, I'm still looking them over. I didn't quite get to 400 - only 384:)photos. I had clear skies until just after the Moon started to come out of the shadow. This is one of the better ones.