Shooting the moon

[Gunsotsu]

I've got dozens of shots of the moon on my hard drive. I think I'm obsessed. Looking to build a telescope soon and have a adapter for my camera.

Sad thing is, I have to crop my moon shots to get anything worth it with my current kit.

[Nicole]

Yeah, you have to do a lot of cropping with a 300mm lens to get anything of a decent size...

[RandomConnections]

What kind of telescope are you planning to build? A Dobsonian? If so, take pictures of that, as well!

Although not obsessed about it, I do like to shoot the moon, too. Below is one shot I took through a very old Celestron C-90:



Here's the setup, with my Nikond D50 attached:

[Gunsotsu]

Actually considering a collapsible Newtonian, but I'm open to anything.

[Saralonde]

I do not have a good moon shot, but the one I have was taken with the Sigma 70-300mm, too, also cropped.



It's harder to do than I thought.

[Digidave]

This is my 3rd attempt at this. Tonight I took about 15 pics at different f/stops & exposure times. I got 1 decent one. Taken at 1/125 secs. at f/11. Converted to B/W & a touch of Unsharpmask. Taken with a Tamron Lens at 300mm with cropping.

[wulf]

I did some more playing around last night but, with only the 18-55mm kit lens on my D40 at the moment, I think I'm going to have to wait for one of those nights when the moon seems to hang pendulously low in the sky! The results were better than the night before but nothing approaching those above.

Wulf

[kunaldaswani]

Shot with my power Shot S3IS using a sepia filter.

[inkista]

Gunsotsu, don't worry about the cropping. Hell, I have to crop even with my 400mm lens:



Rebel XT. EF 400mm f/5.6L USM.
f/5.6. 1/560s. ISO 400. Tripod & tripod collar. mirror-lockup. timer.

I highly recommend playing with a tripod, timer, and mirror-lockup functions for this, and going for a faster shutter speed to eliminate camera shake. Even though you're shooting at night, remember that the moon is a bright sunlit object--you can probably go with a higher shutter speed, lower iso, and smaller aperture than you think.

Also, if you're not using a super-sharp L zoom, I'd recommend stopping down to f/8, and backing off a little from the extreme end of the range, to get the best sharpness you can out of your lens. It did wonders when I used my old 75-300.

[Firemaine]

Took this one last night. Still working with the setting. We have clear skys tonight, so I will be shooting it again. This time with a tripod.
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: 55-200mm F/4-5.6 G
Focal Length: 200mm
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
1/100 sec - F/16
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 800