Exploring the Moon

This is the final modification to this image. I've added the landing

site of Apollo 11 'the Eagle has landed' - the first lunar landing -

for those who may be interested ... Please view in the larger format

for clarity, I hope you enjoy looking at it.

 

"one small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind"

Very sharp and belongs as a poster - very nice work

A+ (If you're doing the kids homework!) Seriously, a very good job and well presented. I've always wanted to photograph the moon but just never had the lens for it. This is very detailed, and with a 500mm, wow. Thanks for sharing... Mike

 

A big thank you to both of you :)

 

Michael, there are a few tricks to taking good moon shots, and i'm happy to share them with you if you want them.

 

As for lenses, 300mm and up will start to bring out good detail, but the cheaper lenses will give some chromatic abberation. The 500mm reflex lens is very good in that way because it uses a mirror, mirrors dont give chromatic abberations.

 

The reflex lens does however give less contrast over conventional optics. But its a very, very small tweek in PS to correct it. You can get a good Nikon 500mm reflex lens S/H on ebay for around $200 - $250! They are manual focus, but for the moon thats what you need.

 

The details for this shot are: ISO 400, 1/250th sec @ F8 ... cable release and tripod mounted. Taken from my suburban back yard at sea level, 15th Feb. 2008 at 10.45 pm (2 hours after sunset)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like it! Excellent presentation! Also, thanks for the shooting details. I guess I don't understand the 3/3....

Wow nice moon shot, funny thing is I JUST got done shooting basically the same moon about 90 min. ago and just got done processing it. I wish I would have seen this first to try your settings, I used my Nikkor 70-300mm @ 300mm 1/125 F/16 ISO 400 and it's a little darker then yours. I also used the timer & delayed exposure setting to minimize mirror slap on my D300. Taken from my front yard on east cost at 680' Above sea level. I think I need to FINE TUNE this lens because it's a little soft at 300mm. I'm going to re shoot it trying your settings, attached is my first try. More to come . . .

Thanks Brian and Bill .. I've left detailed comments on your Moon shots :)

 

Let me know if i can be of any futher help!

Well Tony I used your advice on the camera settings and managed to get a better shot, Thanks for posting those for us, I appreciate the tip it worked out well. See for yourself . . .

 

EDIT: I just read your comments on my shot over on my workspace, THANKS! Now I'm LMAO because you mentioned me outside in the cold, well that was an understatement my friend, I froze my baseballs off LOL. It's a whopping 9' here (I live in the mountains of New Jersey). Your astronomy lesson was VERY informative, I never knew all those atmospheric conditions would affect a shot of the moon. I did make a few of those MISTAKES you mentioned like shooting over a roof, it was only maybe at 70' over their roof but non the less it was, it is a standard home but as you stated I'm sure there is some kind of heat coming off of it. Ya know I was wondering why YOUR moon was reversed and also noted your time of shot and it was posted like 16 hours BEFORE it was 10:30 here LOL Now it makes sense that your half way around the world from me LOL. I took a look at my shot after you processed it again and it does look better. I was afraid to OVER process it at the time but you made some good adjustments THANKS. I am going to post another shot on my workspace in NIGHT TIME photos in a few minutes for you to look at. I took that one with a cheap KENKO 420mm-800mm 1:8.3-16 Lens at 800mm and f/8.3 (Can't adjust the F-Stop since it's a full manual lens and must be locked at the largest f/stop for it to work which was fine. I cropped it down to focus on just the moon with no black space around it. Again it was SOFT which was to be expected and I haven't fine tuned that lens either (Not really familiar with doing that since I never owned a body that had that feature before my D300 - So if anyone knows HOW to go about fine tuning a lens on the D300 please feel free to email me the instructions or a link that tells you how - PLEASE). The 800mm shot has been SHARPENED Once along with running the chromatic aberrations filter, no other adjustments have been made thus far. I'll tell you for a CHEAP lens (Paid about $150 I think) it doesn't take a bad picture, I also received a doubler with it but I didn't try shooting at 1600mm with it yet. It was too damn COLD outside, I was shivering within 5 min. and had to come in to get warm.

 

I DID use my TIMER (don't have cable release yet) and the DELAYED EXPOSURE Feature (which raises the mirror a few seconds prior to the shutter being released even before you mentioned it because I know it works well in taking out any last minute vibrations that might be had. So let me know what you think of the 800mm shot, just give me a few minutes to post it.

 

It's been a pleasure meeting you Tony & Thank you very much for your tips and astronomy lesson, it's been very enjoyable reading & learning about the world above us. Some of my best online friends have been from Auzzy Land, My dream since I was a young kid over 40 years ago was to visit your country, It's #1 on my list of places to visit before I die. Personally I think it;s the most beautiful land on this planet, your so lucky to live there I'm jealous of the photo ops you must see on a daily basis LOL. I'll be adding you to my Special Friends (Interesting People) list here and look forward to talking more with you Tony and seeing your work as you add it. So for now, CHOW from New Jersey!

Are you pulling an all nighter Bill? ... lol

 

Yes, there is definatly more resolved detail, well done!. Are you shooting on the minus side of 1/250th also ... ie. 1/160th, 1/200th and comparing exposures?

 

Normally i take about 15 - 20 images on any night, from ISO 200, 400 and sometimes 800, and all with various shutter speeds. I always shoot 3 exposures on each setting minimum, then choose the best one.

 

The Moon is now up for me, but its still light here for another 2 hrs. :)

 

Ive taken the liberty of PS'ing this image too, just to help bring out the subtle shades and some more detail. One problem with shooting with a 300mm lens is the image on the sensor is only about 15% so there isnt as many pixles to play with, lol, so everything else needs to be going for you, Atrmosphere, temp, vibration, etc, and Focus is more difficult with a smaller lens, but it is achivable as your pics are showing! ... As a comparison a 500mm lens has an image about 25% of the sensor size, so easier to focus and resolve more detail.

 

Well done Bill! ... now you can go to bed, lol.

lol Bill! ... i just read your edited vesion. You must have done that as i was answering your post :)

 

And yes, its 4.30am Sat for you, and its 8.30pm Sat night for me ... just about to go out with a cold beer on this warm summer night and watch the sun set ... lol, sorry.

All nighter / Ah YEA as usual LOL. I'm a 43 yo retired/disabled police officer wounded in the line of duty back in 2001 after 16 years of service. I suffered a spinal injury and had to have a fusion at level L5-S1, so I walk around with $300,000 worth of titanium in my spine but still able to walk on my own thank goodness but I live in constant pain along with taking a ton of pain killers everyday, so sleep is a luxury most of the time, so I stay up, play with my camera/captures/web page when I can't sleep and tonight's no different. I turned professional photographer a few years back to bring in extra income and well to just live my dream of shooting professionally since I was a kid after being wounded. Gives me something to do and makes me happy ya know. I've been shooting my D300 constantly since I picked her up a few months ago and still learning it.

 

I should be having sunrise in 2 hours so I'll be waiting to see what colors the sky brings this morning here while your moon comes up LOL. That 800mm shot is up, it's real soft and I'm sure there is movement involved in the shot since I do not have a lens clamp/tri-pod mount for it because it's just a cheap toy to shoot sky shots like this. I usually don't venture in shots over 300mm up until now, so I'm learning a lot tonight about the unknown territory of super zoom LOL. The 800mm shot is located here: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6955086

Posted a reply to it Bill :)

Hey Tony, just thought you might be interested but I just had one of my photos publishe don the FRONT page of the local news paper today. I shot an accident scene yesterday and just checked the web page and saw it on the front page. Here's the links to the front page and news article. I just wish freelance paid more LOL:

 

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

 

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080216/COMMUNITIES43/802160339

bluddy hell Bill, lol, I was posting on your pic as you were posting here! well 4 mins apart.

 

Im going to have a look at that link now!

 

Well, all I can say is you freelance guys will do anything for a picture! ... lol ... did you put oil on the road?

 

It is a good take, and im amazed no one was hurt!

 

Do you take all their pics?

Tony,

 

Thanks for your comments on my January Moon picture. I didn't pull an all nighter like Bill did :) Everything you said makes sense. I'd appreciate any information you want to send me on photographing the Moon (nairb59@insightbb.com). I'm not familiar with the delayed shutter release to minimize the vibration from the mirror - I'll have to see if my D400 has that capability. The one thing I did not see mentioned, which helped me "inadvertantly" avoid temperature variations from buildings, is to shoot the Moon when it is high in the sky. This will minimize the amount of atmosphere the light from the Moon has to travel through before reaching the camera. The funny thing is, I was thinking of photographing the Moon last night before I read all these posts - We were suffering the same kind of temperatures Bill was.

love your astro photography, and i wanted to ask a favour, could you look at my moon shot its on the forum next to yours, and give me any advice on how to improve my moon shots, i struggle with getting sharp pics and need unsharp mask to try to correct it i use canon 350d 90-300mm lens and a 2x converter, manual focus and multiple shutter speeds take about 30 shots and get maybe 3 or 4 decent ones, thankyou.

 

brent

Thanks Bill, Brian and Brent .. I've sent you e-mails

Very good work !!!

Hey Tony what's up Mate? I just wanted to stop in to let you know I picked up a New Lens tonight and took a moon shot as it's first capture! I bought the new Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX "VR" Zoom ! After reading all the rave reviews on this glass I just had to have one for my wedding duties What a nice piece of glass for $800. I couldn't believe the results I got on this shot which is a HAND HELD capture with VR on. I had to shoot it 4 stops different from your recommended settings because it gives you 4 stops in low light (as advertised) and worked beautifully. Take a look at this one shot 1/250 @f/13 Vs. the f/8 we used before and let me know what you think. Oh BTW we have a FULL MOON tonight (I bet you shot it 16 hours ago and your moon is UPSIDE DOWN LOL I hope you didn't miss it, it's gorgeous tonight. I'm going outside in the 15' weather now to shoot it using a tri-pod to see if I can get an ever better shot. Have a G'Day Mate & I'll talk to you soon, another ALL NIGHTER is in front of me LOL.

Very Nice Bill! Its very sharp and well toned ... and hand held!!!

 

The settings sound about right, it is a full moon and has a lot more light being reflected, so up goes the F stop or up goes the shutter speed. But the VR does make a diffenrece, if this was me tonight with a full moon and the 500mm F8 i recon i'd be around ISO 200, 1/320th @F8 ... maybe 1/400th .. lol

 

ummmm .... :( we have bad cloud cover tonight ... lol ... poor me, huh

 

But keep em commin! ... i'll be up for a little while, well its just about to turn Midnight, but i'll be around for an hour or so.

I like very much this photo. I appreciate your work, especially for two reasons: i like it and i don't have such wonderful astrological photos. Congratulations!

This is amazing, really well done.. and a lesson learned (" ,)