Dark Side of the Moon?

Hi Matthew, this is a great capture. The fact that the craters are so sharp is amazing. Can you explain a little how you got such a sharp image ? Whenever I tru to take a shot of the moon I end up with a blurred image due to the movement of the earth and the slow shutter speed required.

Did you use Registax to get this ?

Mark S.,

Dublin.

Hi Mark,

I suppose there are a couple of keys to getting a half decent image of moon detail.

Firstly I use a rock solid tri-pod and ball head. Of course this a such a basic rule but I'm constantly amased at how many hobby / amateur photographers use inadequate tripods for long lens work. This photo was taken using mirror lock up and a cable shutter release.

Secondly, I have been out at night lately as the skies have been crystal clear - this is another factor many seem to ignore. I'm on the outskirts of a small rural township thus there is no light intrusion into the gardens here and we are located far away enough from Melbourne and Geelong - the largest major cities so air borne contaminents are resticted to windblown dust, harvest activities and the like - no smog blankets out here.

The moon was extraordinarily bright. I started off shooting at ISO 3200 but managed to drop it to 800 and still had plenty of illumination on the crater areas. An exposure of 1/600th was about as slow as I dared go before motion blur begins to detract from the image.

I adjusted the exposure marginally in PS and took the file down to a 70% crop to bring the moon out in the frame a bit more - then sharpened +10% @2.1 pixel depth in PS. No other editing required.

Cheers

Matthew.