Getting better at this...

[Netskimmer]

The night sky was somewhat clearer tonight so I thought I'd take the new TC 2x out for a spin. Here is one of the better images. I believe it is a considerable improvement over my previous attempts. I did a little sharpening in GIMP and cropped some of the empty space out of the picture.

 

[Compaq]

Nice shot! But it seems to be under exposed to me, and suffer from little contrast.
Keep up the moon thing! I wish I could take shots like these.

 

[Psytrox]

I quite like the picture Which lense did you shoot with?

 

[tirediron]

Agree with Compaq.

 

[KmH]

The moon is a tough subject because the mare are much darker than the bright highlands. The younger craters and their ejecta are even brighter.

I measured the under exposure at 1.5 stops. In ACR I increased the exposure, added some Clarity and sharpened (25,1,25). In CS5 I cropped some more, and adjusted the mid-tone contrast.

 

[Netskimmer]

Thanks for all the encouragement. I have been very frustrated with the weather here and was excited to see a reletively clear night when I got home yesterday. I think I may need a better tripod, at 1000mm even my shutter release cable transfers motion to the camera. The longer, heavier lens also made keeping things stable while trying to manipulate the focus ring all but impossible. A lot of people here seem to like Manfrotto but I'm not sure which one would be right for me. I don't need carbon fiber or gears but the hydrostatic heads might be useful.

I quite like the picture Which lense did you shoot with?

Tanks! I used my Cambron with a 2x teleconverter.

The moon is a tough subject because the mare are much darker than the bright highlands. The younger craters and their ejecta are even brighter.

I measured the under exposure at 1.5 stops. In ACR I increased the exposure, added some Clarity and sharpened (25,1,25). In CS5 I cropped some more, and adjusted the mid-tone contrast.

It's a tough subject but I really enjoy it. Did you measure exposure with a histogram or with something else? I am still getting the hang of the histogram and my moon shots produce very strange looking ones. Your edit is cool, it definitely shows more detail than mine but it doesn't look "real" to me.

Here is another one that is a little brighter but shows less detail.

 

[KmH]

I measured the exposure with the Exposure slider in ACR while holding the Alt key down.

 

[Netskimmer]

Ah, ok. I am still very uneducated in post editing.

 

[KmH]

Two things that can help for moon photos.

1. shoot when the moon is as directly straight overhead as possible. That is one thickness of the atmosphrere. At the horizon you're looking through the equivelent of 3 thicknesses of the atmosphere.
2. shoot on a night when the humidity is low.

 

[Netskimmer]

Yeah, the humidity is what's been killing me recently, its been very humid and foggy until last night. Not as clear as a winter night but far better than it has been. It doesn't get anymore overhead that it was last night. I had to point the camera almost straight up. I think this also added to my stability issues. (at least from a photography standpoint )

 

[Psytrox]

This Cambron with a 2x teleconverter. Am I correct in thinking that this basicly multiplies the focal length by two? So when you take the picture with your Cambron 500mm f/8, it really has a focal length of 1000mm??

 

[Compaq]

This Cambron with a 2x teleconverter. Am I correct in thinking that this basicly multiplies the focal length by two? So when you take the picture with your Cambron 500mm f/8, it really has a focal length of 1000mm??

Remember to multiply by the crop factor of his D7000, which is 1.5, if I'm not mistaken. Effective focal length will be 1500mm.

 

[Netskimmer]

Oh yeah, I forgot to factor that in, thanks. The moon is pretty fast at that magnification, especially when zoomed to max in live view. It was kind of cool to watch it move like that, though it did make getting some of the shots more difficult.

 

[Psytrox]

Is it in a way just a "magnifine glass? And you connect one end to the camera, and the other to the camera lens?

 

[KmH]

A 2x teleconverter effectively doubles the focal length of the lens, but it also effectively makes the aperture 2 full stops smaller.