Moon shot

[waspo]

Damn! Anyone get a shot of the moon this morning? That sucker is HUGE!! I didn't have time to set up a shot before work, but I'm betting there's going to be some really nice shots out there.
I might try and line up a shot tomorrow morning, weather permitting.
Can someone give me some advice as to how to set-up the camera? I'll be using my 70-210mm lens.
Cheers, Jase.

[ElTippo]

I missed it. What time where you looking? I may have to set the alarm tomorrow morning

[waspo]

It was around 7.00am. By that time it was quite low in the horizon so I'd set the clock for around 4.00am or so.
I tell ya, this thing was absolutly perfect! The sky was clear and you could really pick out the moon's details. Bloody HUGE!
I hope it's the same tomorrow morning.
Do you know what setting are good for shots like this?
Cheers, Jase.

[ElTippo]

Honestly I have no idea about the settings, I'm a noob! I'll start with 1sec and let the D70 chose the Fstop then review the shot taken and adjust where needed.

If you have a tripod, use it for sure.

I took some shots at around 12am a few weeks ago at the moon and they were all 1-4 seconds from memory.

I better have an early night

[gstark]

Jase,

Start at about 1/250 and f:/8, and experiment from there. Play with both your shutter speeds (+/- 1 - 1.5 stops) and your apertures (same deal) and see what you end up with.

Looking at your lens list, I'd use the 70-210, fully zoomed. Maybe tripod, maybe not, but iven that you don't have VR, probably, yes.

[HappyFotographer]

Jase

have you seen this thread? http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=4958&highlight= It gives some pointers to moon shots.

Cheers
Deb

[waspo]

Hey, thanks for the advice guys. Will rug up tomorrow morning and see what comes about. Here's hoping!

[waspo]

...back again. Just went outside to take a look and there she was (7.00pm). Not as big as it was this morning, so I will try for a better shot early tomorrow.
This is what I got following the settings in Deb's link. I'm using a tripod with the remote on delay. Not a very good tripod as I still noticed some slight movement, but otherwise not too bad.
Check back tomorrow.



...and this one I played with 2 exposures in PS.

[HappyFotographer]

Nice Jase. Moon shots are fun aren't they...makes me long for a telescope.....or a bigger zoom lens!

Took the boys to soccer practice last night at 6pm, the moon was covered with clouds, it looked fantastic, but unfortunately my camera was rugged up at home......it refused to go out in the cold

Keep them coming

Deb

[SoCal Steve]

Nice shot, Waspo. One of the better ones I've seen posted.
Ansel Adams said that you can usually count on the luminance of the moon being about 250 c/ft^2. Hope that helps.

Not really a bad lens either. I've had one for a number of years, but don't get it out much.

Cheers!

[waspo]

Thanks Deb and Steve. Yes, I popped my head out at 3am and it was cloudy and raining. Got up at 6am and saw the moon out, grabbed the camera and managed to blast off a few shots just before the clouds devoured it again.
The moon looked bigger than last night so hopefully they should turn out a little better. Will review tonight after work and post one up.
Cheers, Jase.

[SoCal Steve]

Seriously, does the moon actually come closer to the earth at certain times?
I saw it a couple months ago when I thought it looked incredibly big here in the Northern hemisphere. I'm pretty dumb in this area.

[gstark]

Steve,

Not that I'm aware of, and even if it did, it wouldn't be enough to make any real difference in its apparent size as we view it.

What I believe makes it look like it's bigger is the refractive properties of the Earth's atmosphere. When the moon (or sun) is low on the horizon (sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset) it (or its image as we see it) needs to travel through more of the atmosphere than when it's directly overhead, and the Earth's atmosphere acts a bit like a lens to make it look bigger at those times.

[Hlop]

Gary,

It should be an Australian athmosphere I've never seen that huge moon back there in Siberia. Actually, if I remember that right, all objects in Universe moving by ellipses not circles, so, it should get closer to Earth from time-to time in particular places

[gstark]

Mikhail,

Gary,

It should be an Australian athmosphere I've never seen that huge moon back there in Siberia.

I've certainly seen it in Hawaii, California and Texas. Not spent enough time in EU to make any observations about this from there. (yet)

Actually, if I remember that right, all objects in Universe moving by ellipses not circles, so, it should get closer to Earth from time-to time in particular places

Yes, but that would not make any real difference to the apparent size that we visualise it at.

[sirhc55]

Gary is spot on - late yesterday afternoon on the way to Bowral the moon was low on the horizon and large - later on, as it rose, it became smaller - is not the eye a wonderful deceptor

[gstark]

This is a very simple explanation of why this is so.

[waspo]

It did look bigger along the horizon when I took this picture this morning, but I guess it was an illusion because it pretty much came out like the last one. I tried to squeeze everything out of the lens, so I guess I've achieved something I've been wanting to do for a while.
OK, time to move onto something else...

[gstark]

Did you reverse the image at some point during your processing of it?

Or did you perhaps put the CF card in the camera the wrong way?

The image looks (to me) to be reversed by 180 degrees from how it should look.

[chris1968]

Great shot waspo, one i have always wanted to bag, hence i was slightly frustrated this morning when the tv news was banging on about how good and big the moon appeared last night, then i came in and saw this thread........
ho-hum-i'll have a look tonight and report back on how it looks in the northern hemisphere, though i'm in england so cloud will doubtless pay a part.......

[sirhc55]

The idea with the big moon shot is to try and get some land horizon in the shot thereby enhancing the size by association

[waspo]

Did you reverse the image at some point during your processing of it?

Or did you perhaps put the CF card in the camera the wrong way?

The image looks (to me) to be reversed by 180 degrees from how it should look.

Yeah Gazza, I noticed this too. But it's the real deal. Over the course of the night it must have swung around to this position, possibly the way it's rotating across the sky. I bet If I got a shot at about 2am, it would be facing pretty much vertical. Judging by the position, it looks as though it's rotated in an anti-clockwise direction.
It makes sense if you think about it.

[waspo]

The idea with the big moon shot is to try and get some land horizon in the shot thereby enhancing the size by association

This is why I'm guessing it appears bigger along the horizon. I think I heard Dr Karl say something along these lines...

[waspo]

Anyone else get any shots? I'd be interested to see how different zoom lenses capture detail.
My shots were very soft and needed smart sharpening in PSCS2.

[gstark]

Judging by the position, it looks as though it's rotated in an anti-clockwise direction.
It makes sense if you think about it.

Yes, but only if the moon rotaes about its axis. Unfortunately, I don't believe that it does, yet your image seems to be rotated about its vertical axis from the shot that I made last month during our Sydney Night Shoot.

I'm curious about this one.

Gordon, are you there?

[gstark]

Hmmmm ....

Looking more closely at the two images, it seems to me that they've each got a different angle of view of the moon, and this makes more sense to me.

In the earlier evening, the angle of view, from Sydney to the moon, might be x, whereas 10 hours later it would be x + 150 degrees, thus providing a different viewpoint from which to view the subject.


I'm still unconvinced of my theory on this ...

We may need to start up something in the nerds section!

[waspo]

Yeah, this is interesting and I agree with you. I think you hit the nail on the head. I guess it would be like looking at it's reflection in a way if you were to look from one point of the horizon to the other. If you get what I mean. The moon doesn't spin on it's axis, we know this therefore it's most probably the earth's rotation which changes the moon's view angle, moon up, moon down. Apart from that, I'm just happy in taking a shot at it. You could say, I'm over the MOOOON!:lol:

[waspo]

WOOHOO!! The moon is out and the sky is clear. Just had to try for another pic. Looks like a shadow is starting to cast on the top lefthand side. Those craters are really starting to show!

[Jamie]

Well this is the best i could come up with....

Wed 22 Jun 7:45pm

Nikon D70s, Nikon 70 - 300mm @ 300mm, 1/400 sec @ f 5.6, ISO200

[waspo]

Nice one, Jamie!

[Jamie]

Thanks waspo, but i think your pictures are alot better - sharper and more contrast compared to my effort.

I need more practice i think.

[waspo]

Actually Jamie, my shots were pretty much like yours. I just sharpened them in PS. Bit of a cheat really.