Crescent Moon

[marcelo_valente]

Hi, I took this shot of the Crescent Moon the other day and would like some critique and tips of how this came out and ways to get nicer moon shots.
I shot this raw and had to give is some minor changes in Lightroom to make it whiter because it had a yellowish color to it. Also I had to crop it a lot, because the moon was very small in comparison to the rest of the shot area.

I do not have a tripod yet so I layed the camera on top of a table at home with some remote controls that I had lying around to get the angle right. The moon was really low in the sky and it was 1:30 am.



The basic exif info for it follows:

Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.5
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 200 mm
ISO Speed 100

Thank you for your help,

Marcelo

[RELum]

One tip from my astronomy days... Wait till the moon is higher in the sky. The lower it is, the harder it will be to get a truly sharp view due to the heat from the earth as it cools and smog and such. Also, if you have it or can borrow it, use a longer lens. The huge crops affect your sharpness too. You can see it in the crater edges the most.

PS: A crescent moon is the sliver of moon you see just before and after a new moon. What you have is called a Gibbous Moon. Sorry, my astronomy days poking through again

[JFSanders]

Originally Posted by RELum

One tip from my astronomy days... Wait till the moon is higher in the sky. The lower it is, the harder it will be to get a truly sharp view due to the heat from the earth as it cools and smog and such. Also, if you have it or can borrow it, use a longer lens. The huge crops affect your sharpness too. You can see it in the crater edges the most.

PS: A crescent moon is the sliver of moon you see just before and after a new moon. What you have is called a Gibbous Moon. Sorry, my astronomy days poking through again

All true and the first thing I said to myself when I saw the photograph is "no that is a Gibbous moon"!

Jim

[marcelo_valente]

Hi! So.. I changed the name of the picture to Gibbons moon. I did not know that there were other names to the moon apart from Full Moon, crescent, new and waning.

Thanks for the tips also. My lens only goes to 200mm. I have another one that goes to 250mm but that is not much. How far do I have to go? About 400mm?
Also, probably when the moon is higher in the sky I'll need longer lenses.

I took a few shots of the full moon yesterday, but I haven't seen how they came out yet.

Thanks again!


Marcelo