Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Moon Almost Full

I took these Friday evening, the night before the full moon. Last night's full moon was invisible behind heavy clouds. Not so much as a glow to show where it was shining.

They are mostly an exercise in photography for me, as these images can be found in almost any astronomy book, and are a little ho-hum. I found some tips here that show how to capture an image of the moon that shows up as more than merely a glowing disk of light in a photo. Who knew that you needed to use ISO 100 at night?? I used a 300mm zoom lens, f/11, 1/400 shutter speed to shoot this photo. It is unedited except for cropping. (If you click to get the full size image, along the lower edge you can see the shadows cast by the craters... I can't imagine how huge they must be to show so much texture.)



I took this next one before I remembered to use the zoom. I am always amazed at how small the moon really is in the sky -- it just *seems* so much bigger than this!


Some of the sites I googled recommend shooting at phases other than full for more interesting photographs. I may try that if we ever get another clear moonlit night. That's asking kind of a lot in this place at this time of year!

7 comments:

Mike Fleming said...

Oh, those photos are excellent. I know what you mean about the camera settings, I set my camera on manual and just kept changing the settings and shooting and shooting and got a couple pics I liked.

Linda Fleming said...

Great photo, Judi! It looks like you were close enough to reach out and touch it.

Serena Lewis said...

FANTASTIC!!! Thanks for the info, Judi ~

BumbleVee said...

I noticed three nights in a row that it was very light, but never did see the moon as I was ready to jump into bed by then. The snow looks pale blue when it shines on it...

Anonymous said...

You and Mike both got great shots of the moon! I haven't seen the moon since I took my last moon photos it has been so overcast here. Thanks for the tips on the settings and I am going to keep trying to get a better shot myself.

Jennifer Rose said...

those are great photos :D Its cool to see the detail, things you don't tend to see with the naked eye. I've always wanted to set one of our cameras up on a tripod and a remote switch, sit outside on a good clear night and take a picture every hour (rewinding the film) to see the stars move on the photo. It can make a really cool photo, one of my teachers in school had done it and it was like a swirl of light but because he only took a photo every hour you could still make out some of the star constellations.

HElen said...

Great shots!
I was chasing moon this morning :) and soom did not really want to zoom :) But it was before I saw your post and link to some tips, now I am going to read and maybe try again:)
Your pictures are great and love close up!