After seeing a picture of the moon that someone had posted on the forum I thought I would have a go.

I am a total novice and I have only taken about about 20 pics on my Nikon D40 since getting it 2 weeks ago but thought it was about time to give it a go

The only editing I have done is cropped the image to get in a bit closer with my lens being 200mm I could not get as near as I wanted.

[img=http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/7408/moon21rh5.jpg]
[img=http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/moon21rh5.jpg/1/w640.png]

Is their any tricks to enhance my shot with the kit I currently own (details in my sig)

Any comments (good/bad)welcomed

For some reason imageshack would not let me host the image full size so could only add a thumnail and some links

[johnaalex]

Originally Posted by dave5182

After seeing a picture of the moon that someone had posted on the forum I thought I would have a go.

Not sure if it was my shot from yesterday that prompted you, but here are views anyway.

I think you may have used too small an aperature as your shot looks like one the ones I took at f14 and discarded because it was not bright enough. What settings did you use?

The good news is that the moon will not be full until tomorrow night so lets hope for clear skies then and we can compare results on Tuesday

Originally Posted by johnaalex

Not sure if it was my shot from yesterday that prompted you, but here are views anyway.

I think you may have used too small an aperature as your shot looks like one the ones I took at f14 and discarded because it was not bright enough. What settings did you use?

The good news is that the moon will not be full until tomorrow night so lets hope for clear skies then and we can compare results on Tuesday

Yes John you where my inspiration for the moon shots
Not sure what settings I used as took a few on different settings so will check my camera so see what I shot them at.

I have a lighter picture that I took which I will upload but will just crop it first

Here is a lighter pic that I took

[SeeHear]

First time moon shot from me using sigma 70-300 APO, at the 300mm end it was too soft for some reason this one was shot around 200mm.
100 crop no pp.

[senu]

Originally Posted by SeeHear

First time moon shot from me using sigma 70-300 APO, at the 300mm end it was too soft for some reason this one was shot around 200mm.
100 crop no pp.

How did you shoot it?
Tripod , fast shutter speed , high ISO?
Softness is from very slight shake.( hand held with Zoom and as such lower shutter speed or reliance on AF)
Also if the speed isn't enough the earth rotation will cause blur , and softness

I had to use a tripod with mine as their was no way I could shoot it without. Picket up a Hama Star 63 tripod from Tesco for £12 which seems decent as did not fancy spending loads on a tripod

[SeeHear]

Used a cheapie jessops tripod on timer so no shake at all.
Settings were ...

1/100
AV 6.3
ISO 100
133mm

This one was at 300mm

1/160
5.6
ISO 100

[darkeeboy]

May I show you my attempt from Sunday night, handheld with 70-30mm VR

[richard plumb]

I had softness from one earlier in the week. I think it might be to do with how the moon is quite low in the sky at the moment, and rises quite early. When I was looking through liveview, the moon was quite shimmery, so perhaps heat rising from the ground (it has been warm these days)

I might try again when the moon is higher in the sky, or if I happen to wake up very early one morning and capture it when its cold.. and not full. Full moons means not so much detail, as you get the best detail with the sun to one side, creating shadow.

I'd be interested to see if anyone is mad enough to take a bunch of shots over the course of the moon's phases,and then merge them to get the most detail.

[hilly10]

Had a go myself last night and finally come up with a few that I can post took with D300 70-300mm VR bit of sharpening in PP What do you think

[Mike.P®]

One I did a few nights ago with Pentax K10D, Pentax-K 300mm f4 prime and 2X teleconverter. Hand held and manual focus.

[jomike]

Also had a go last night with the old faithful Sigma 70-300mm APO. Quite pleased with the result, as I cropped a lot and only had 6MP to start with from the D50. The atmosphere seemed very clear last night.

f/8, 1/200, ISO200, tripod mounted, timer delay, shot in raw, developed in Lightroom 2.1, exposure (less) and white balance tweaked and sharpened.

[mypspname]

here's mine
Taken with a Tamron at 300mm. Cropped & bit of pp.

[mark800]

Taken this morning at 7.45am, handheld, with my new Canon 50d camera with 300mm f/2.8 lens.

Settings were: ISO 100, f/2.8 and 1/800th of a second.

Edit: reized to 700 pixel width and reinstated colour.

[Fozzybear]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

I had softness from one earlier in the week. I think it might be to do with how the moon is quite low in the sky at the moment, and rises quite early. When I was looking through liveview, the moon was quite shimmery, so perhaps heat rising from the ground (it has been warm these days)

I think there was a fair bit of water vapour haze too, I noticed a lot of haloing around the moon when shooting last week and found that the finer details were blurred in my shots.

Originally Posted by mark800

Taken this morning at 7.45am, handheld, with my new Canon 50d camera with 300mm f/2.8 lens.

Settings were: ISO 100, f/2.8 and 1/800th of a second.

That's really good - excellent detail in that! Looks like you're getting good results with the new camera.

[werewolf40]

Originally Posted by mark800

Taken this morning at 7.45am, handheld, with my new Canon 50d camera with 300mm f/2.8 lens.

Settings were: ISO 100, f/2.8 and 1/800th of a second.

Edit: reized to 700 pixel width and reinstated colour.

That is a quality shot.