Photographing a Moon Halo

[Ant-33]

On Tuesday night, while out, I saw the clearest and most impressive moon halo I've yet seen. Do any of you have experience of photographing a moon halo with a standard DSLR (in my case, an EOS 1100D)? If so, what exposure have you had success with? I'm expecting the moon itself would be overexposed to get a clear image of the halo, but that's not so bad. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance 

Cheers, Tony

[johnfosteruk]

I shot one a month ago using a D3200 @ 50mm.

 

I can't remember the exact exposure settings and can't find the original unedited file but I know I shot RAW with the moon correctly exposed, then pulled the halo detail out in Lightroom, even managed to pull a little detail out of the moon at such a short FL too. 

Edit 1... Checked the Exif on the attached image in the post, it was 1/6s @ F1.8 ISO 100

Edit 2... You could always capture a few exposures and blend too, if you're quick. The 1100D does bracketing I think

[Pete Presland]

I saw that as well, it was most impressive. The first thing to do is make sure you focus it correctly, I mention this because on Tuesday I didn't! I was in such a rush because halos can come and go very quickly. So disgusted I deleted the folder in annoyance, now I regret it.

 I captured this supermoon 22 degree halo on the 13th Nov 2016 This was an 8sec exposure at 18mm, ISO200.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I've taken a shot of one before, (with my Mum's Point and Shoot Canon camera) getting the exposure right was the hardest bit, and preventing the houses from spoiling the view and "trailing" was hard.

John

 

[Ant-33]

1 hour ago, johnfosteruk said:

I shot one a month ago using a D3200 @ 50mm.

 

I can't remember the exact exposure settings and can't find the original unedited file but I know I shot RAW with the moon correctly exposed, then pulled the halo detail out in Lightroom, even managed to pull a little detail out of the moon at such a short FL too. 

Edit 1... Checked the Exif on the attached image in the post, it was 1/6s @ F1.8 ISO 100

Edit 2... You could always capture a few exposures and blend too, if you're quick. The 1100D does bracketing I think

Interesting - I wondered about getting the halo detail out with post-processing. Nice to know it works. Yes, the 1100D does exposure bracketing, and I hadn't thought of using that - brilliant idea.

1 hour ago, bunnygod1 said:

I saw that as well, it was most impressive. The first thing to do is make sure you focus it correctly, I mention this because on Tuesday I didn't! I was in such a rush because halos can come and go very quickly. So disgusted I deleted the folder in annoyance, now I regret it.

 I captured this supermoon 22 degree halo on the 13th Nov 2016 This was an 8sec exposure at 18mm, ISO200.

 

Yes, I always find focussing a real challenge when I don't have a bhatinov mask and I'm using a DSLR lens instead of a telescope. Interesting to see these exposure details - 1/6s and 8s. The low ISO is clearly best - it gives me some starting points for next time.

32 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Hi,

I've taken a shot of one before, (with my Mum's Point and Shoot Canon camera) getting the exposure right was the hardest bit, and preventing the houses from spoiling the view and "trailing" was hard.

John

 

I feel your pain. I tried with my telephone, which is essentially a point and click, and the exposure was terrible. I probably could have done better, but I didn't have much time for messing with settings at the time.

Thanks for the feedback y'all. I only hope I have another chance when I've got a DSLR and a tripod handy.

Cheers, Tony

[Davey-T]

There was a nice one some time ago with Jupiter inside the halo, can't find the image ATM.

Dave

[Ant-33]

On 2/9/2017 at 22:38, Davey-T said:

There was a nice one some time ago with Jupiter inside the halo, can't find the image ATM.

Dave

I'd love to see the pic if you find it