Full Moon

[willardnorman]

First ever moon shot,
350D 600 FD/w adapter

[jackprks]

Looks really good!!

[willardnorman]

Thanks once again, Jack.

Regards,

willard

[Nighthound]

You're off to a great start Willard. A bit soft and a touch overexposed but better than my first attempt for sure. Bracket your exposures slightly and shoot a bunch to be sure you get an exposure that's right where you want it. Focus can be done a very bright star if you're using manual. Once you're focused at infinity you'll be right on.

Here's a trick using auto focus. Set your lens to AF and camera to an auto focus mode. Point at the brightest star you can find in the sky and tap the shutter button half way like you would to snap focus any other time. Once you've snapped to focus on that star, carefully switch your lens back to Manual as well as your camera dial. Be careful not to touch the lens near the focus grip. Now point at the Moon and you're ready to go. It's possible that you might have to tweak focus due to shift when moving the camera/lens around, only test shots will tell. Using a tripod and camera delay or a shutter release will provide the steadiness you want. Eliminating vibration is a must for critical focus. A light wind and even walking near the tripod during exposures can introduce vibration.

Also be sure to adjust the dioptric dial of you camera viewfinder for your vision when focusing on the night sky. It's considerably different than shooting terrestrial.

If you have a laptop and a way to download your shots while out shooting you can get a much better idea of your focus by enlarging on screen.

[black_z]

Why wouldn't he just focus on the moon?

[Nighthound]

Why wouldn't he just focus on the moon?

Just offering an alternate approach.

[willardnorman]

Hi Nighthound,
Appreciate your help but, my rig is all manual(600mm FD)so I can't use AF.
Your method has merit so I will keep trying. I think my tripod is adequate(Manfrotto 3001N /w a Wimberley old style). The only thing I didn't do is lock up the mirror, I know that can be a problem sometimes. I did use a remote cable release though.
Once again thanks for all of your help.

Regards,

Willard

[BB18]

Hi Nighthound,
Appreciate your help but, my rig is all manual(600mm FD)so I can't use AF.
Your method has merit so I will keep trying. I think my tripod is adequate(Manfrotto 3001N /w a Wimberley old style). The only thing I didn't do is lock up the mirror, I know that can be a problem sometimes. I did use a remote cable release though.
Once again thanks for all of your help.

Regards,

Willard

Nice picture. What problem does your mirror lock up cause?