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Moon shots...

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M38A1

M38A1

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No, not of the Animal House / Porky's variety. Rather, the biggest and brightest full-moon of the year will occur tonight based on a Yahoo! news article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100129/sc_space/biggestandbrightestfullmoonof2010tonight


A few snips from the article:

"Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights".

"The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.

As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object. "





I think I might try to take Gary's tip link and snap a few pixels this evening if the clouds lie and the wind slows down a bit.

Anyone else planning on shooting the moon? If so, post 'em up here!

.
 
I've been trying to take some since I bought my camera back in Dec. Key is that it is very bright and you need to compensate for that by underexposing what the camera would like to do. Shooting digital makes it easy to see how you are doing though. I tend to shoot faster shutter speeds, like 1/250 or faster, use a tripod, IS off, manual focus, ISO can usually stay low ~200. I use the live view feature to focus and zoom in with it. That way I get a close up of the detail as I focus. Of course that only works if your camera has live view.

I either shoot Manual mode or Av with -2 on the exposure compensation. Oh yeah, I also use the mirror lockup and the 2 second timer. That way the camera is still when it takes the shot.
 
This is one from yesterday. Have not see blue sky since last night.
Thanks to the guys that told me how to do this here in the TWT Forum.


Moom28Jan10.jpg

Camera Make: KONICA MINOLTA
Camera Model: DiMAGE Z6
Image Date: 2010:01:28 19:37:02
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 69.5mm (35mm equivalent: 420mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
Caption: KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
 
Here ya go... now understand this was heavily cropped but what's left is pixel for pixel. It probably wouldn't print very large but makes for some decent wallpaper.

Canon 40D with Canon 300mm IS lens - handheld. 1/250 sec @ F8 using ISO 400 in Manual mode. Exposure was based on in camera spot metering of the moon itself.

Photoshop Elements used for slight contrast adjustment and cropping.

Taken about 6:05 in the evening - the sky did not look as black as the image suggests, which helps with contrast difficulties when shooting moon shots.

img4707aa.jpg
 
Checking my images, looks like I was using ISO 400 on the more successful ones. 250mm zoom. With the full moon it is harder to get good detail and the earlier you take, as in the above post, the better. When the sky is completely dark its bit harder to get good detail.

My cropping could be better on these, but here they are:

IMG_0501.jpg


IMG_1355.jpg
 
This one is from a few minutes ago. Sorry, but I don't have enough lens right now to get in very close:

2010-0129-029.jpg
 
This 'aint easy to do.... 200-300mm or more sure would be nice for this. 6:34PM this evening 01/29/2010

776411394_ZpVtt-X3.jpg


Exif Sub IFD

* Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/640 second ===> 0.00156 second
* Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 56/10 ===> ƒ/5.6
* Exposure Program = manual control (1)
* ISO Speed Ratings = 200
* Original Date/Time = 2010:01:29 18:34:10
* Exposure Bias (EV) = 12/6 ===> 2
* Light Source / White Balance = unknown (0)
* Flash = Flash did not fire
* Focal Length = 1500/10 mm ===> 150 mm
* Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
* Exposure Mode = manual exposure (1)
* White Balance = auto (0)
* Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 ===> 1
* Focal Length in 35mm Film = 225
* Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
* Gain Control = n/a (0)
* Contrast = normal (0)
* Saturation = normal (0)
* Sharpness = normal (0)
* Subject Distance Range = unknown (0)
 
This is a pic of the new years eve "blue moon" . [sorry. cheap camera and don't have a clue to what I'm doing].

"A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was blue moon was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028"


DSCN0526.jpg
 
Well, I did go look awhile ago at 1:30AM, just in case the skies clear but nothing but a glow behind the clouds. I really wanted to try my stand and timer on the moon instead of just freehand. Maybe tonight?
Great shots and makes me want to work more with settings on my Dimage. It's tuff when a camera is lots smarter than the owner. Ha ha ha ha.
 
DaveC said:
Looks like someone has been taking the lunar rover for a joy ride. BTW where is the Apollo landing site?
Love the crater edges at the top.
Click to expand...

site? this is Apollo 16

apollo16.jpg


the little red flags mark the six landing sites.

apollolandingsites.jpg
 
Very neat on the moon landing stuff.
Looked outside at 3:30AM and still overcast with moon glow coming through and that's about it with 35°F temps out there. Not much gonna happen outside till it warms up to the 50's LOL.
 
shot at Big Bend last week
it would have been much better if I would have had a tripod there.
I think anyone that has ever been to Big Bend will know this spot
780152326_nPYEn-XL-2.jpg
 
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