Novice to astro photography

[Ali C]

some advise with ISO and shutter speed settings when photographing the moon.

Yesterday evening (at dusk ) I tried to get some shots using my DSLR and 300mm lens,I had a play around with the iso and shutter speeds but produced nothing I was really happy with.

Any basic tips would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Ali

[rfdesigner]

You need very very fast. the moon is awfully bright.

If I remember correctly you need something like ISO100 and 500th of a sec at f5. That sort of area.

Have a go, check the histograms on the back of the camera, on my 30D It shows you if anything's bleached by blinking the witeout area. My moon pic in my album was taken by just reducing the light until nothing was quite bleached... then a bit of prcessing to sharpen it up.

Derek

[iwatkins]

"Moony 11 Rule" At f11, set the shutter speed to the ISO.

E.g. Aperture: f11, ISO: 100 and Exposure: 1/100th

That should get you close, then adjust to suit. I.e. if you open up the aperture by two stops, you can speed up the exposure by 2 stops etc.

Cheers

Ian

[Gina]

Yes, the brightness of the moon is like the ground in bright sunlight.

[alan potts]

Ali C

Something to consider is a 300mm lens is a telephoto for normall camera use but when pointed at the sky it is in real terms a fairly wide angel that you are viewing, the moon is only about half a degree when full. The 300mm on a camera is giving you about the same as 7x50 bino's.

Alan.

[nytecam]

Ali C Something to consider is a 300mm lens is a telephoto for normall camera use but when pointed at the sky it is in real terms a fairly wide angel that you are viewing, the moon is only about half a degree when full. The 300mm on a camera is giving you about the same as 7x50 bino's. Alan.

Simple rule-of-thumb eg diam of moon/sun image at camera focal plane = 1% of camera lens focal length so a 300mm fl lens gives a 3mm diam image of moon/sun. The actual ratio is closer to 1/110

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Think i'll try that ISO 100 on me digital cam i modded to telescope when next view moon.

[Ali C]

Chaps thanks for the tips, I think I may have made a school boy error, I'm not convinced that I switched the AF off.

Useful tips all the same. Many thanks.

[iancandler]

I've just been shooting the moon tonight with a DSLR & 300 mm lens.

my settings where :-

Manual mode

ISO 400

1/400th second shutter speed

F8

I had the VC on, on my lens and was able to hand hold the shots without a problem.

Also auto focus works well on my 500D, but oddly better when I use AI servo focus mode rather than one shot.

I hope that helps

[Ali C]

Yep cheers Ian, i'll give that a try next time out.

I have a Natural Density, UV and a Polarizing filter would any of these help ?

cheers

Ali C

[nytecam]

Good basic advise re moon exposures there and whilst essential in the good-old-film-days - we're in the digital age and it cost nothing to experiment, take a dozen pics and view results moments later on the cam LCD aided by the zoom function. So change the setting until you get a good sharp and well graduated image without burnt highlights - just have fun and forget the rules

[tingting44]

You need very very fast. the moon is awfully bright.

If I remember correctly you need something like ISO100 and 500th of a sec at f5. That sort of area.

Have a go, check the histograms on the back of the camera, on my 30D It shows you if anything's bleached by blinking the witeout area. My moon pic in my album was taken by just reducing the light until nothing was quite bleached... then a bit of prcessing to sharpen it up.

Derek

some really nice info in here guys! im just getting use to scope and slr which ive had for a few months, but in terms of clear nights only probably a week lol

interesting what u say about the histogram! is that quite important to check then as i dont have a clue how to read the histogram lol it means nothing to me

[rfdesigner]

interesting what u say about the histogram! is that quite important to check then as i dont have a clue how to read the histogram lol it means nothing to me

The historgram merely shows the number of pixels of various brightness. The left side usually represents the dark pixels and the right end the light ones, astro images have a lot of dark pixels so you get a hump on the left side of the graph. If you have clipping you'll be pileing up a number of pixels clipped to the maximum value, so you'll get a little spike on the right hand side of your graph.

On my Canon 30D it blinks the area in any image you've just taken if it's clipped, which makes things even easier.

Derek

[tingting44]

thanks rfd, just checked on my 1000d and its blinking on one of my pics lol will have a play with it later, im out with the stars at mo, LOVELY CLEAR sky! WOO HOO lol my 1st clear night in about 3 weeks