This is the most important phase to be able to photograph because it is the one where you (1) set up your equipment, (2) make sure it is working right, (3) determine your basic exposure settings, and (4) focus properly. So go ahead and do 1-2.
Steps 3 and 4 are somewhat iterative - you will need to determine your exposure so that you can focus. Then go back and make sure your exposure is still correct, and then if you have changed it, you will want to verify your focus is still correct.
When determining your exposure settings, remember that the three main things that determine how much light is recorded are (1) shutter speed / exposure length, (2) aperture, and (3) ISO (remember that shutter speed and aperture can be collectively referred to in the EV measurement). First, set your ISO to its lowest setting (this will probably be 100). Second, set your aperture to its largest setting, which is the lowest f/number. Then increase the f/number by 1, 2, or 3 stops (remember, this is based upon a "sweet spot" of sharpness in most lenses). Third, experiment with shutter speed until the Moon is exposed properly. Use your f/number and an EV12 for the full Moon as a starting point. The following table should help:
f/number 1.4 2.0 2.8 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.6 8.0 14.0
Shutter Speed (sec) 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/200 1/160 1/125 1/60 1/20
The above table should only be used as a guide, especially because the Moon's brightness will vary depending upon its position in the sky, atmospheric turbulence, and particles and pollution in the air. For example, with an f/14 aperture on a 900 mm (1440 mm equivalent) lens, an exposure of around 1/120-sec properly exposed the Moon for me just before the last eclipse. That corresponds to EV14.5, and this was when the Moon was near its highest point in the sky (hence Wikipedia's EV15 value). When using a 480 mm equivalent lens at f/5.6, an exposure of around 1/250- to 1/320-sec properly exposed the Moon a few months earlier. If the Moon appears too dark with your shutter speed, then decrease the speed to allow more light in. If the Moon appears all white with your shutter speed, then increase the speed to allow in less light.
This is where using the Histogram feature on your camera helps. The Histogram is a graph telling you where most of the recorded light falls. If the Histogram peaks towards the left side, this means that most of the pixels in the image are dark. If the Histogram peaks towards the right side, then the opposite is true. Ideally, you want it to peak in the middle. But, unless the Moon fills the entire field of view of the image, this will not happen because the night sky will dominate the scene.
Therefore, most of the pixels will be fairly dark, up against the left side of the Histogram. However, there should be a peak in the brighter part of the Histogram (the right side) - this is the Moon. You want that peak to be somewhere in the middle of the Histogram. You do not ever want it to truncate prematurely against either side.
Further explanation of Histograms is not the purpose of this guide. For more information, many people recommend this webpage:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml .
If you are finding that you need really slow shutter speeds at this point (such as 1/30-sec or longer), then double-check your aperture and make sure that it is mostly open (you are using a small f/number). If you are finding you need really fast shutter speeds (such as 1/300-sec or faster), then double-check the ISO to make sure it is not too high.
To focus, set the manual focus at infinity, or if you have an SLR, then set it as far "past" infinity as you can. Take a picture. Either look at it on the camera's LCD screen (zoomed in), or at the image on a computer. It will probably be out of focus. Now - just a little at a time - change the focus in the other direction, and take another picture. Continue this process until the picture you take is in focus (or in focus enough for your purposes).
For me, this is often the longest part of setting up and it can be a pain. But it is a very necessary step … you would not want to spend 5 hours out in the cold photographing the Moon and come back and look at out-of-focus blobs. You should also be checking the images periodically throughout the night to ensure the focus has not changed due to temperature, focus creep, or accidentally bumping the lens.
Now that the lens is in focus, double-check the exposure Histogram to make sure your exposure settings are still alright, and adjust accordingly if they are not.
Now for the most important part: Write down your settings! These are your baseline settings and you can use them as a starting point for all other lunar photography. And especially if you are doing this a few weeks in advance of an eclipse, you are likely to forget what you did when it comes time for the "big night" and trying to figure out camera settings while the eclipse is going on is not a very fun thing to do. I made a detailed log of all my settings and processing details during the August 2007 eclipse, and I also made notes of what I should have done differently at each stage, and it is this that I will use as a starting point for the next lunar eclipse.
The photo above, the MAIN thing as I see it is that the moon is out of focus. That is a big blur problem and one that noone suggested as the culprit. seems the focus is on the trees or somewhere close.
