Moon Photographing

[Ben_V]

Originally Posted by Mark1616

Ben is totally correct, if you are looking to get into lunar and stellar photography then my setup really isn't the best. It is just that I have it already kicking around for sports photography so might as well use it.

As you can see though, you do need to be quite specialist in your gear if you want good as you have to go with long glass, which can be found cheap, but long sharp glass is a totally different matter.

Nice shots Ben, which camera was attached to the scope?

Mark, ofcourse your approach is totally fine. If you have long glass, use it! I just happen to have the telescopes and mounts, so I use them, because it is more convenient to use these long focal lengthes attached to a solid astronomical mount, then using a photographic tripod. My trials with my own 500/4.5 lens did not yield the results I get with my scopes…

This is also important and true for any kind of long lens shooting: high quality results do not come immediately. I needed a lot of practice to achieve anything printable with long lenses, not only in the Moon shot department… Birds are even worse.

The camera was a Pentax K20. The overview at ISO 320 and the details at ISO800.

Ben

[Seawolf66]

You could buy the Sigma 1200mm lens for shooting the moon ,But that might be a Little High in price, or your get canon's large lens which is very high price and then if you can find that very special Zeiss lens at1000mm I think , but like I said there is some very heavy money involved: you might think abut a good astro lens or I believe their called Mirror lens'es: good luck and enjoy

[Seawolf66]

Question: I was told to shoot the moon at F-16 @ 125 of a sec or 1/250 of a sec : any thoughts on this statement: Thanks

[Ben_V]

Originally Posted by Seawolf66

Question: I was told to shoot the moon at F-16 @ 125 of a sec or 1/250 of a sec : any thoughts on this statement: Thanks

That's meant to be the "sunny 16" rule. The moon is only a big reflector, which reflects the sun light. So the sunny 16 rule applies - somewhat. It is only strongly applicable at Full Moon, which unfortunately is the time, when the Moon shows the least interesting sight, as this is a very flat "face on" lighting. Without good shadows, caused by side lighting, most of the Moon's many features become more or less invisible, at least all the smaller ones.

During the more interesting Moon phases, when the sun's light hits the Moon surface at a sideways angle, which gives the craters and rilles their visual depth, by creating strong shadows and brilliant highlights, that rule does not apply any more. Genrally: the smaller the visible part of the Moon, the longer the exposure time (or smaller f-number).

This is a helpful link: Moon exposure calculator | All Day I Dream About Photography

Ben