My first sucessful photo of the moon

[The_Phantom]

I took this at 5:15 am this morning (us insomniacs get the best shots). Before, any moon shot I took it just looked like this big fuzzy glowing ball, but this turned out pretty good. 100% zoom, Samsung 8.0 point and shoot camera.

If youve got any like shots to share, share'm!

Not too bad if I do say so myself!

 

[Thoth]

Nice shot. Though for a ghetto telephoto lens you could hold up the camera to the eyepiece of a pair of binoculars. (with a little playing around and adjust of course)

 

[The_Phantom]

I actually have a telescope. I wonder if it'd work with that.

 

[Thoth]

I actually have a telescope. I wonder if it'd work with that.

It should. I know many brands that have camera adapters for their telescopes. Here is an example of one
http://www.telescopes.com/telescope...ng/celestrondigitalcameraadapteruniversal.cfm


Here is a link to making your own (if so inclined)
http://www.szykman.com/Astro/HomegrownAdapters.html

And a link to directory for specific scopes and cameras
http://www.szykman.com/Astro/Adapters.html

 

[Taceas]

Nice picture, the blue of the sky is really visually pleasing.

Here are a few of mine over the past year or two, taken with a Nikon D80 and the 18-135mm AF lens all on manual settings. I'm not all that great with manual settings, I just keep fiddling with things till it comes out true to how I'm seeing it in real life. lol

April 2006

August 2006

February 2008 Lunar Eclipse with Mars & Saturn

August 2007 Lunar Eclipse Flash Slide-show

 

[Arlius]

I would say you are using too slow a shutter speed and should use a tripod, Phantom. The moon is actually quite bright, so increasing shutter speed (or aperture) would decrease amount of light, so you won't blow/clip the highlights (overexposure). In the photo you've shown us, the highlights are clipped, though not by much. A slight increase of shutter speed or aperture in that case along with a tripod (I've been assuming you didn't use one) Aperture increase might be the best, as the increased DOF might get it a bit sharper when focusing at infinity. Play around with it...
Blurriness can also of course be caused by camera shake (hence you should get a tripod... most night photography really needs it)
With your camera you should be able to get a crisp in focus shot of the moon.

 

[DrAce]

...

February 2008 Lunar Eclipse with Mars & Saturn

...

I love this picture. Anyone else notice that saturn has a distinct shape? Back in NZ, I had an 8" reflector telescope that was great for taking pictures (I was still using film, so none of them digital).

*sigh* I miss my telescope now.

 

[The_Phantom]

Arlius, thank you for the suggestions. I shall try that. Im still pretty clueless about all that stuff. Im used to pointing and clicking, thats it. I thought it turned out not too bad for my first real try. Any pics like this I tried in the past, it just looked like a glowing blob. Especially the darker it was!

Taceas- WOW awesome sets. I wish I could zoom in that much!

 

[Taceas]

DrAce, when I zoomed in to the full size picture before I cropped for that shot above, you could see that it was Saturn, with fuzzy little rings on both sides. Needless to say, my first picture of a planet and I was skippy!

 

[The_Phantom]

WOW Taceas!! Thats amazing!!

 

[DrAce]

DrAce, when I zoomed in to the full size picture before I cropped for that shot above, you could see that it was Saturn, with fuzzy little rings on both sides. Needless to say, my first picture of a planet and I was skippy!

Snap. I was working on that very zoom here when I saw you had posted it.

WOW Taceas!! Thats amazing!!

Jupiter is neat too. You can very clearly see four moons around it. They look like stars, but they are in a neat little row.

 

[Taceas]

One of these days I'd love to get a nice telescope, nothing fancy, but decent and affordable. I'm always outside sitting in a lounger watching the sky at night.

 

[The_Phantom]

Jupiter is neat too. You can very clearly see four moons around it. They look like stars, but they are in a neat little row.

Ive seen it through the binoculars. Its amazing. ^^