My first Moon photo ever

[PHOTOHAPPYHAWAII]

Last night was my first ever attempt at shooting down the moon:eek: I lack the knowledge in astronomy what do i do? I took this in my backyard so I'll try again tonight as well. shot with a Canon 20d, 400mm 2.8l, 2x TC on a tripod and time shutter mode. 1/100 sec, ISO 1600, f/20. :confused: advice anyone for tonight?

[Johnny9s]

Great first moon shot!
Looks a little overexposed though. You could definitely drop your ISO down (I usually shoot the moon at ISO 100) and your f-stop as well between f/4 and f/8 I find works best.

Check out the moon exposure calculator on this page. It will get you in the ballpark for shooting well exposed moon shots.
http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/

[Nighthound]

Great first attempt, better than my first for sure. A bit overexposed but there's still a lot of detail present even in the highlight areas.

Here's an adjustment in Photoshop using curves:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/Nighthd/Astrophotography/test/tst2/moon1unods.jpg

Looking forward to your next go at it.

[acchildress]

Pretty good for a first or 100'th shot.

[PHOTOHAPPYHAWAII]

thanks for the quick tip, here's my 2nd attempt at taking down the moon. Its raining tonight but luckily got a few shots before the clouds came over. this is the 3rd of 8 pics, taken with a Canon 20d, 400mm 2.8l USM, 2X TC. settings ISO 100,1/100 sec,f/5.6 with a timed shutter. square cropping and minor level adjustments in PS. Its clear most nights out here in Hawaii, what else shall i be looking for to shoot in the sky?

[Adrena1in]

Its clear most nights out here in Hawaii, what else shall i be looking for to shoot in the sky?

Without a tracking mount of some sort you're going to be limited to solar system objects, constellations and star-trails really. I wouldn't start thinking about deep sky objects like galaxies or nebulae just yet...save that for when your desire supercedes your resistance! ;)

Great moon shots, you can really get nice detail with that 800mm setup. Don't know what Jupiter and Saturn are like for you at the moment, but I'd try and target those if I were you. They still only require fast exposures, and at 800mm they'll be pretty recognisable. Also Mars and Venus, and perhaps even Neptune and Uranus, though I gather they're a bit trickier...never tried them myself.