Why can i not get a good shot of the moon???

[RoyL]

Went out the backyard and the moon was there so using an old 500mm lens on my Canon D60 (which is in pretty bad condition) and took four shots at ISO 200 and f16, all processed in Camera Raw and slight sharpening in Photoshop

shot 1 at 1/80



shot 2 at 1/60



shot 3 at 1/40



shot 4 at 1/30



These are rough shots, normally I would work with a higher ISO 400 so I could work with higher shutter speed, I also have light polution, and the 500mm lens produces rather soft images.

And if I want to go crazy I would probably pullout my 12" Dobsonian with 2x magnification and a 24mm lens, but then I would need a windless night.

[anthonybeard]

wow, those are nice.

[barabe]

I took a shot of the moon yesterday with my canon XS and 18 55 lens and got a fairly good result. I do not see the detail craters but i see the dark spots on the surface.
I was using 55mm, f11, ISO100 and my tripod with manual focus. Maybe that could help.

[AristonPhotog]

Here's my go at this. The first was taken during the day. The second was at night. Both hand held with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

[dlthibo]

I was able to get this one with my 70-200mm f2.8 Canon lens. I used a tripod and a remote shutter release.

Camera:	Canon EOS 50D
Exposure:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	200 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

[bradzo66]

I also wanted great moon shots and managed to get this shot using a tele and 2x converter I am too new to this to offer any really helpful advice other to give you details of my equipment and the settings from the camera and maybe you can use this in some way .exp:1/100 F/stop f/13 Iso-400 . I guess coming from somebody with six weeks experience may not mean much but i was happy with the shot and really just want to help !

[dcclark]

Anthony -- it's not bad, but the first thing I notice is that it's a bit out of focus. That's probably your first goal: get that focus tack-sharp! Autofocus often works well, but sometimes you need a manual tweak. This is especially tricky for moon shots. I frequently take several shots, moving the focus ring slightly between each, just to find the best I can get. (And of course, looking through my moon photos -- they're all slightly off-focus. Sigh.)

Also, ISO 400 seems unnecessarily high -- it's proably not high enough to really be a problem, but the moon is very bright -- set it to 100 or 200 and call it good.

Finally, a tiny aperture is very unnecessary. The moon is (effectively) a 2-dimensional object when it comes to photography, so f/8 is more than enough to ensure your lens is at its best. Again, I doubt this hurt you, but it's just a hint.

Also, as far as the color -- a nice trick for night photography is to set your camera's white-balance to Tungsten (incandescent bulb, indoor) lighting. It makes things look bluer and more natural to our eyes.

Good luck, and keep trying!