Second attempt at the Moon

[juno]

I'm not a great photographer by any means, I just enjoy it. Made some improvement on my last attempt, I'm quite happy with this one. Shows the capabilities of the lens more.

Oly Zuiko 600mm & Oly 2Xa teleconverter again, @ f8, 1/100 no cropping. Just a touch of sharpening in Aperture and slight boost to the exposure as this was my sharpest shot just a tad underexposed.

I'd welcome any critique or comments with warm arms.

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[Djarum]

Its pretty good. I would have gone maybe 1/80s to get a little better exposure. Other than that, its pretty good.

 

[red]

A nearly perfect moon! I still hear the wolfs, from far away...

 

[Boyzo]

Thats excellent detail

 

[juno]

Thanks for the comments. I think I can get it better still with more effort, just need to get a night when it's really cold - ideally -8 ish, the moon is high and it's a clear cloud free night.

The Zuiko 600 seems one hell of a lens for sure. Think I'd be looking at a telescope to get better results than can be got with it.

 

[Djarum]

There are some moon shots in my gallery taken with a telescope.

If you take a look at those, it doesn't take high ISO to take them, I shoot them at ISO 100/200. You'll get lots more detail.

 

[juno]

There are some moon shots in my gallery taken with a telescope.

If you take a look at those, it doesn't take high ISO to take them, I shoot them at ISO 100/200. You'll get lots more detail.

Hi, yes these were taken at ISO 100. This was the best shot out of around 400 I took, when I tried to boost the exposure in Aperture the file started to degrade. Will do better next time.....not the easiest thing to shoot.

 

[Kosta]

so do you use any sorts of filters when you take photos of the moon? never had any good results with an old nikon lens (it is only 50mm)...always too bright and no detail

 

[juno]

so do you use any sorts of filters when you take photos of the moon? never had any good results with an old nikon lens (it is only 50mm)...always too bright and no detail

Me?No,no filters. I even remove the UV filter just to be sure nothing srange is going on.

50mm - I don't think you're going to see much detail. The Zuiko 600mm was effetively 2400mm with the 2x teleconverter, I think for that shot the aperture was f/11 (not f/8 as I originally said) and the shutter speed was 1/100. Next time I'll be going for f/11 at 1/80 or f/8 at 1/100 at ISO 100 as always.

You will get a reasonable detail with a 300mm lens on a 4/3 camera.

 

[zpierce]

That's a great shot, lots more detail than I've been able to get with shorter zooms.

As far as the too bright issue - I had the same trouble until I realized that the moon really is very bright reflecting sunlight against a black background. You just need to crank the exposure way down or try spot metering on the moon. Once I did that all of the sudden I had a moon that looked like the moon with details

 

[dulaney22]

Looks very nice to me. I didn't realize how hard it was to capture a good image of the moon until I tried . . . LOL!!

 

[zpierce]

This is what I got with the Panny 45-200mm at 200. This is the full crop, actual size, it was still quite small in the frame. Looks decent for the web, but wouldn't make much of a print

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachpierce/3887980699/" title="Full Moon by zach.pierce, on Flickr">View attachment 151986"428" height="417" alt="Full Moon" /></a>

 

[Djarum]

Taken with the 4/3 40-150:

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Taken with a 660mm telescope:

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[grebeman]

Djarum,
I think you've cracked it with your 660mm telescope shot, nice one.

Barrie

 

[Djarum]

Barrie,

Thanks. I took this one some time back.

Its fairly easy to get a good moon shot. The sunny day rule applies. Manual focusing IMHO is the best thing to do as well as manual exposure. I also use a tripod with the self timer. A remote cable release would work too.

 

[Djarum]

Just for reference, here is a full size photo of one I did just recently. Short F ratio achromats tend to have a ton of purple fringing/ chromatic abberition. This shot is taken with using what is called a "minus violet" filter which helps reduce CA.

http://home.comcast.net/~djblack8/moon_m_v.JPG

 

[juno]

Its fairly easy to get a good moon shot. The sunny day rule applies. Manual focusing IMHO is the best thing to do as well as manual exposure. I also use a tripod with the self timer. A remote cable release would work too.

Nice shot. What scope is that btw?

It's very hard to focus correctly with a lens like the Zuiko 600mm, Especially on a m4/3 body. Literally have to touch the focusing dial, wait 10-15 seconds for everything to settle down and take a look see if you got it right. Been looking at getting a better tripod head.....

I have been looking at the Meade ETX 125.....in my budget just about. And easy to use and focus from the reviews I have read.

 

[Djarum]

Nice shot. What scope is that btw?

It's very hard to focus correctly with a lens like the Zuiko 600mm, Especially on a m4/3 body. Literally have to touch the focusing dial, wait 10-15 seconds for everything to settle down and take a look see if you got it right. Been looking at getting a better tripod head.....

I have been looking at the Meade ETX 125.....in my budget just about. And easy to use and focus from the reviews I have read.

Yes, You'll have to wait for the camera to stop shaking. Atmospheric turbulence can also make it hard to focus. Keep in mind that 600mm is 1200mm 35mm equivelent. I'll send a PM about the scope since that is off topic.

 

[Brianetta]

The moon will be closer in the first week of November. That should make it loads easier...

Yep, just looked it up. At perigee it should be half a stop brighter.

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

Hi, Brianetta,

maybe the moon will be closer, but it's also the 'new moon' week, which means that the visibility will be very low, between 30 and 0% only as per this 'moony' homepage :

Mooncalendar november 2010

C U,
Rafael