A walk on the "Moon" with my daughter plus some first photos

[bradfrankshaw]

Hi all - just thought I'd impart a quick adventure my youngest daughter who is 8 and I had last night with the night sky and a friends Canon 350d. Seeing the sky was ultra clear and the moon was near on full, I thought I'd go out and try some shots. My daughter wanted to come out too (she's fascinated with astronomy), even though it was about -3 so we both dressed in 3 layers, double socks, hats, gloves, double thickness jackets (her jacket reminds me of Maggies snow jacket from The Simpsons) etc.

Then we went out into the dark back garden where a good layer of snow lay - hardened by the frost into a crusty white covering that looked a million years old. With the land laid bare by the intense light of the Moon, the black sky, the majestic spray of stars and a few major planets, the two of us set about setting up the tripod and getting the camera mounted and ready.

We found we had to move gently about in the crunching snow, boots leaving permanent prints in the frozen snow. Then, whilst kneeing on a garden knee pad under the light of my daughters hand powered torch aimed attentively at the various buttons on the camera I pointed at, I suddenly became aware that for all intents and purposes we looked like astronauts on the surface of the Moon.

Looking about, under that black sky with the Moon as bright as the Sun in the Moon's sky, with us in our puffed out jackets, gloves and hats, crunching on frozen snow leaving prints, it really did feel like we were Armstrong and Aldrin fiddling with equipment. Pointing this out, my daughter thought this was very funny and we did spend a few moments bouncing about as if on the Moon.

Then we took a few 1600ISO 2~4 second snaps, got some glorious pictures of Orion, Cirrus, the Moon looking like the sun and Venus. But then the cold got the better of us and we had to retreat to our ship/house

frank

ps Any tips on getting some good 3~20 second exposures of wide angle sky shots on this camera would be great thanks; I'm not that hot on DSLRs and a lot of the shots were guesswork.

[Genghis]

best read i've had in a while...made me chuckle

[carlc]

Then we went out into the dark back garden where a good layer of snow lay - hardened by the frost into a crusty white covering that looked a million years old. With the land laid bare by the intense light of the Moon, the black sky, the majestic spray of stars and a few major planets, the two of us set about setting up the tripod and getting the camera mounted and ready.

We found we had to move gently about in the crunching snow, boots leaving permanent prints in the frozen snow. Then, whilst kneeing on a garden knee pad under the light of my daughters hand powered torch aimed attentively at the various buttons on the camera I pointed at, I suddenly became aware that for all intents and purposes we looked like astronauts on the surface of the Moon.

Looking about, under that black sky with the Moon as bright as the Sun in the Moon's sky, with us in our puffed out jackets, gloves and hats, crunching on frozen snow leaving prints, it really did feel like we were Armstrong and Aldrin fiddling with equipment. Pointing this out, my daughter thought this was very funny and we did spend a few moments bouncing about as if on the Moon.

Lovely bit of imagery - funny too!

Carl

[Matt 82]

we did spend a few moments bouncing about as if on the Moon.

And you wasted all your photos on the sky??

[bradfrankshaw]

True, but the camera was determined to use the flash which would have spoiled the moment And I don't know enough about the settings to give a good shot without flash at night - except how to set to Tv and 3+ seconds 1600ISO lol.

[Astro Imp]

That's a great read and an inspiring way to get and keep you daughter's interest.

Did the neighbours see the two "lunatics" out at night in the bitter cold jumping up and down.