My first attempt at the moon

[chrisdoig24k]

Borrowed a friend's telescope for a weekend in the country, and failed to get a single shot due to rain and clouds. So here's my first attempt, from my suburban porch.

It's horrible and I hate it. The close part is nicely focused but the sides are horrible and needed loads of fiddling to make them look even remotely sharp. I couldn't shoot in colour or else the sides of the moon would go bright blue.

Why can't I get this right!? Feel free to rip in to it.

[CallaWolf]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

I've taken dozens......and dozens.......of the moon

I'm still trying to get one I like

[Ian]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

The blue sounds like fringeing and can be fixed in post-processing, but you're right - it's not very good.

Was this taken using the telescope? Was it a clear sky and a bright and contrasty moon? It's under exposed - maybe up the ISO to 200 and just increase the shutter speed to 1/125th. But it doesn't seem as if the lens is very sharp to be frank.

Ian

[crimbo]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

The moon is difficult...for a frame filling image you need a 1500mm lens/telescope.
For exposure try using spot metering on the Moon itself

[Ian]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

The moon is difficult...for a frame filling image you need a 1500mm lens/telescope.
For exposure try using spot metering on the Moon itself

I would not recommend metering at all, except maybe for some test shots. Experiment with exposure. Once you have that nailed, it won't change, so set the camera to Manual with the ISO, shutter speed and aperture that worked best. Bias towards fairly fast shutter speed because a) the moon moves surprisingly fast across the frame, and b) the long focal length will mean the view will be vulnerable to to shake. 1/250thor 1/500th should be good.

Ian

[FlemmingS]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

Shooting the moon is great fun and can be very frustrating.
It is easier to shoot at half-moon or less as full moon photography can be very challenging.
As Ian says: Go manual and be prepared to exxperiment.
I have a small 152 mm telescope focal length 750 mm which I will do some moon photography with this year (when time and weather permits)

Here is an old one the I am very pleased with:
Handheld
E-510 and 70-300. Focal length 300
Shutter 1/200 second
Aperture F/9
Iso 100
Image stabilisation IS1

[chrisdoig24k]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

Stunning you got that at f9 with iso100 and 1/200!
Granted I used exposure compensation in post processing to try and dampen down the nasty halo I was getting. I'll have a look at the full specs of the scope when I get home, and perhaps put up the unedited image, in spite of how awful it looks!

[shirley]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

I hope you don't mind us adding our pics Chris , this is my version.



Techi details:
E30, 70-300 (at 300), EC20, F20, ISO100, 1/60s, on a tripod.

[satelio]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

I will love some direction on the subject as well,,,
I have try with my e3, 50-200 hand held but not quite good result,,,,
taaaa,,,,,

[FlemmingS]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

I hope you don't mind us adding our pics Chris , this is my version.


Techi details:
E30, 70-300 (at 300), EC20, F20, ISO100, 1/60s, on a tripod.

Clearly show the advantage of using a tripod



Satelio:

Not a bad attempt IMHO

[Tordan58]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

The moon is difficult...for a frame filling image you need a 1500mm lens/telescope.
For exposure try using spot metering on the Moon itself

The moon disc angular view is on average 0.517 degrees (the angle is depending on distance moon-earth).

Correct, a 1500 mm lens (true focal length, not "35 mm equivalent") would almost fill the frame with the moon disc. Say the 4:3 sensor is 12 M pixel i.e. the disc will be 3000 pixels.

The moon angular speed when observed from the earth is 15 arc seconds per second (15/3600 degrees per second).

For perfect sharpness, you need to ensure that during the time the shutter is open the moon has moved less than a pixel across the sensor. Achieving less than half of that means it should not be noticeable.

This means that you need to aim et exposure time of 1/50 seconds or less to eliminate any slightest motion blur.

[Ian]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

The moon disc angular view is on average 0.517 degrees (the angle is depending on distance moon-earth).

Correct, a 1500 mm lens (true focal length, not "35 mm equivalent") would almost fill the frame with the moon disc. Say the 4:3 sensor is 12 M pixel i.e. the disc will be 3000 pixels.

The moon angular speed when observed from the earth is 15 arc seconds per second (15/3600 degrees per second).

For perfect sharpness, you need to ensure that during the time the shutter is open the moon has moved less than a pixel across the sensor. Achieving less than half of that means it should not be noticeable.

This means that you need to aim et exposure time of 1/50 seconds or less to eliminate any slightest motion blur.

1/50th might prevent moon traverse blur, but the whole camera and lens, even on a good tripod, will be wobbling, so I would recommend 1/200th or faster.

Ian

[Greytop]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

I hope you don't mind me adding a couple too

Both of these were taken hand held (IS set to 1) with the 50-200 SWD, EC-20 (400mm) and E-5.

The first one is ISO 200, f/7.1 and an exposure time of 1/320s, The second ISO 800, f/7.1 exposure time 1/250S. Metering was set to spot for both.

I find that at 400mm and with IS set to 1 you really need a minimum of 1/200-250s to have a good chance of getting a sharply defined image when hand holding.

[crimbo]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

Okay...as we want to show Chris down-under what he can aspire to...



1/250s, ISO 200, 1500mm, F5, spot meter

that is raw, uncropped, resized for web

[Greytop]

Re: My first attempt at the moon

A veritable Moonfest