Craters on Moon

[Fleetwood271]

I was amazed that I could see craters on the moon in this pic.

 

[Vinny]

What focal length lens did you you use? I took it with my 300mm lens and no craters!

 

[Fleetwood271]

What focal length lens did you you use? I took it with my 300mm lens and no craters!

I was using the Tamron 200-500 with the 2x tele. Had it on a tripod in Manual mode with a remote. Probably the best moon pic I've been able to capture so far.

 

[Vinny]

Here's my shot.

 

[peanut170]

Here's my shot.

I think its a little harder to get the craters on a full moons. Its just too bright from what ive noticed. try it again on a half moon and you should get better detail.

 

[Fleetwood271]

I think you're right about full moons. I haven't been able to get this much detail previously. But I plan to try again in a few days.

 

[Infidel]

Just so I understand correctly, you were shooting at 500mm with a 2x teleconverter, on a crop body? Field of view equivalent to 1500mm on full frame? How on earth did you keep the moon in the view finder long enough to make that capture? What kind of tripod head did you use? Seems like aiming would be the hardest part, at that focal length.

BTW, looks great!

 

[Vinny]

I was thinking my shot is the way it is because my focal length was too short. I'll try it on a non full moon night! the little light dots on the photo I thought were craters.

 

[Mbnmac]

That looks great.

Tried some night shots last night, but it was a little bit misty (on the coast) so nothing came out too sharp, something I really want to try again!

 

[pgriz]

To see the craters, they have to be close to the terminator (the line between light and dark). Full moon is essentially flat lighting. Half-moon has the center vertical of the moon along the terminator.

 

[fokker]

It looks pretty soft to be honest - could be a result of camera shake (even the tiniest amount at that focal length) or poor focusing, or just the fact that that lens and TC combo is always going to be soft. I've shot sharper moon shots at 300mm and cropping down - just something to think about.

 

[bentcountershaft]

I think you're right about full moons. I haven't been able to get this much detail previously. But I plan to try again in a few days.

I believe this must be the case as the shot I took the other night is the only one I've seen craters in. This is at 200mm and heavily cropped just to get it only this big. The detail was better than I expected though.

 

[Vinny]

I'm goning to give it a try. The effect I was going for was craters.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Here's mine, heavily cropped also. Taken with my Canon 55-250 kit lens.

 

[Fleetwood271]

It looks pretty soft to be honest - could be a result of camera shake (even the tiniest amount at that focal length) or poor focusing, or just the fact that that lens and TC combo is always going to be soft. I've shot sharper moon shots at 300mm and cropping down - just something to think about.

You're right about the tiniest amount of camera shake. I did not use mirror lock-up on this shot, which would have helped to some degree. And yes, using the tele/lens combo is not a very good combo for a sharp capture.

I've shot some at 300 with a 70-300 lens without the tele, and they looked good. As anyone who has shot very many moon shots knows, atmospheric conditions, phase of the moon, etc, play a huge part in the success or failure of your shot. I attribute most of the success of this shot to pure luck.