A very new moon.

[Grandpa Ron]

I was down loading some photos and found this moon shot from the first week of November.

It had to be a very new moon, shining nicely in the Southwestern sky.

Canon Rebel T6
Manual settings,
f 11 aperture
1/15th sec.
55 mm lens setting
800 ISO

 

[iamross04]

I have a Nikon D5000 w/ a stock lens. The other day, the moon was great and I tried for several minutes to no avail. What mode should I be in? How do I make it focus well? Any tips based on your experience?

 

[wfooshee]

The moon is a fully sunlit subject. Expose for daylight, not night. If you use the meter, you'll get a bright blown-out blob, unless you spot-meter exactly on the moon, and even then it's iffy. You want the longest lens you have; an 18-55 will not give you good shots of the moon, it just can't fill enough of the frame.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

The moon is bright but to get a frame filling shot, you need a long lens. I used a camera to telescope adapter with a department store telescope. As you can see it is okay, but not very sharp and has chromatic aberration.

My next try was with a homebuilt Newtonian telescope that uses a 152 mm diameter mirror rather than a lens to gather the light. Its focal length is 1220 mm, which was too short for the camera mount so I had to use a 2x multiplier lens, for a focal length of 2440 mm. This time there is too much magnification and it over fills the frame.

These two shot represent several nights of experimenting with my Canon T6 in manual mode. It is a lot of fun if you like to experiment, and think "What If I try this". However, it does reinforces that fact that you need really good lenses for crystal clear, sharp detailed, magazine quality pictures.

My favorite moon shot has nothing to do with telescopes and adapters. Just a foggy night and some leafless trees.

So I hope this helps you understand the type of gear you need to tinker with moon shots.

Good luck