Here's my moon shoot

[NV Whino]

And I'm going to leave the moon to the experts hereafter. Just can't get the darned thing in focus.

[alfredo]

1. Nice. The clearest it got here was unacceptable due to the reflection on a cloud.

It made it look like a double exposure.

[NV Whino]

2. I had a lot of the moon in motion.

13 second exposure seem to be a bit too long.

[alfredo]

3. How high can your ISO go before getting noisy?

[NV Whino]

4. Well, that was one of my mistakes

Somehow it defaulted back to 100. Didn't realize it until after the fact. I usually keep it at 400.

400 is a good compromise between speed and noise. I could probably push it to 600, any higher and it gets noisy.

[alfredo]

5. I never go higher than 1,600 unless I am shooting monochrome.

My camera has live time, so I can see the image "develop" on the LCD.

[NV Whino]

6. I'll have another chance next month, although not an eclipse

By next month, my eyes might even be working better.

[alfredo]

9. I'm thinking about getting the Rokinon 14mm 2.8 for night sky images.

It seems to be the choice of many. It is sharp as a tack.

[Tom Kitten]

7. It's a nice shot, though

but you and me both, all my moon shots turn out blurry. Maybe it would help if I got a tripod!

[NV Whino]

8. Ha! I had a tripod.

[alfredo]

10. A bean bag and a two second delay or remote release will work.

[PosterChild]

11. That's an awesome picture . ..

... it might not have been your intent , but the focus contributes to a painterly effect.

[chknltl]

12. Looks fine to me...

...of course everything looks like that to me until I put my glasses on. FWIW I've recently purchased a Nikon 7100 and even with a tripod and a delay timer my moon shots, under normal full moons come out only slightly less blurry.

[NV Whino]

13. I've had good luck shooting in twilight

Or early morning when the sky isn't black.

[passiveporcupine]

14. You got to see more than I did

And I still think it's a beautiful shot. Just a little soft and mystical looking.

[Scruffy1]

15. Atmospherics can make it hard to get a sharp shot.

Even with my 400 f4, if there's a lot of humidity around it will effect a time exposure a lot.

[rdking647]

16. my technique for the moon

ive found this works pretty well..
1. auto focus using spot focus.
2. after autofocusing i swith to manual focus/live view. I zoom in on the live view and then manually focus to get it sharper. this step isnt always necessary,its depends on the lens
3. use a remote and a sturdy tripod. If your lens has image stabilzation turn it off
4. use mirror lock up. that will reduce mirror shake (only for dslr's ,unneeded for mirrorless)
5. after moving the camera let it settle down for 10 seconds so any vibration dies down.
6. take a lot of shots. you will be surprised how some are sharp and some aren't. it depends on turbulence in the atmosphere which changes constantly

these are a couple of mine

this is with a telescope. equivalent to a 1000mm telephoto lens,on a sony a6000 (crop sensor)


this is with a 300mm and a 2x teleconverter on a nikon d600



just after totality

[NV Whino]

17. Nice!

Mine were all manual focus. In the early shots, before it got dark, the auto focus was going crazy. I suspect it would have worked one it got dark and had a point on which to focus.

[rdking647]

18. during a normal moon usually

during in eclipse not as much. autofocus needs contrast to focus well and the eclipse didnt have enough especially during totality

the biggest key is doing what you can to reduce camera shake especially with a telephoto. when i hook my telescope up to the camera and have zoomed in live view im amazed at the shake with even the slightest movement.
just picking up the remote (its wired) can casue a shake for a second or two. the wind can also shake it,even a fairly light gust

[NV Whino]

19. That may well have been a major contribution

To catch the rising moon, I was standing on the roadway with several other people who were coming and going. The shot I posted was taken from my garden area after the moon rose enough to see it from my house. Well away from traffic there.

[rdking647]

20. also the lower in the sky the moon is the less sharp

when its near the horizon your looking at it thru more atmosphere

[NV Whino]

21. Yeah, especially that night

It had to come above horizon haze and some low clouds before we could see it at all. It was pretty well alone to full eclipse by the time we could even see it through the haze.

[rdking647]

22. we had teh same problem in austin

really had very little view until it was totally eclipsed.