Moon from Tonight

astrostu · Apr 13, 2008

Here's a quick photo I did of the moon tonight. This is 1/12th (8.3%) the size it was when I edited it, and 1/3rd (33%) the size that's reasonable given ideal seeing conditions. I can post larger if people want. Original photo was done in 16-bit, too.

I don't really like the contrast in this version, and I think the highlights on the limb are a bit over-blown, but I was quick in my processing since it's past my bedtime.

GeneralBenson · Apr 13, 2008

If it's too bright, maybe you could turn down the flash... :lol:

JYoung · Apr 13, 2008

A lovely shot of the moon.

Miss Banana · Apr 13, 2008

Great detail. It's a perfect shot of the moon.

Naturallyred · Apr 14, 2008

holy crap. That is amazing!

Antarctican · Apr 14, 2008

Looks pretty darn good to me!!!

Dubious Drewski · Apr 14, 2008

Hmm, no Exif data. This is well done. What focal length did you shoot at? I tried shooting the moon once with my 70-300, but the results were sub-stellar (Zing!).

I tried everything. Raw, Mirror lockup with 2 second shutter delay on a tripod with aperture a few stops above wide open(I think it was f8 - for maximum resolution), also focused at the hyperfocal distance. The shots were still blurry. Hmph.

EDIT: That's it, I'm going out to do some shooting right now.

kundalini · Apr 14, 2008

Greast shot Stu.

astrostu · Apr 14, 2008

Thanks for all the compliments! (And you can feel free to keep 'em coming, I had a bad day today.) I guess the artist is always the most critical of their own work.

Dubious Drewski said:
Hmm, no Exif data. This is well done. What focal length did you shoot at? I tried shooting the moon once with my 70-300, but the results were sub-stellar (Zing!).

I used a lens with an effective focal length of 4.877 m, aperture 0.61 m (f/8). :wink:

There's no EXIF data because - at that focal length - I had to do a panorama of 21 photos. I'm so glad I have my new desktop with 8 2.8 GHz processors and 6 GB RAM ... there's no way I would've attempted to stitch 22 16-bit TIFs together on my 6-year old computer that I was using until 2 months ago.

I'm going back out tonight in an hour or so to get the moon again - this time doing something of an HDR to avoid issues with those highlights.