FD 500mm f/4.5, 100% moon crop. What do you think?

[watchtherocks]

100% crop of moon, using a circa 1970's lens.
Total 35mm equiv FOV is 1008mm. Slightly sharpened.



It's quite incredible to watch it go in and out of focus due to what I'm guessing is atmospheric haze.
So, does this look ok, or too soft?
It had been a really hot day, and the FD-EOS converter has a glass element in it which doesn't help things.
Thanks, Tom

[Celestron]

Thats pretty good for close up just a little soft side .

[txduggan]

G'day Tom...

What you're experiencing is the bane of visual and photographic astronomers world-wide....

Transparency and "seeing" conditions......

What _may_ look like a nice clear night can actually be a catastrophe once you get behind the eyepiece or camera.......think of smearing petroleum jelly on your lens(e)

It does look a little "soupy" and there's really nothing you can do about it.....

Best thing to do is to wait for the celestial object to cross the meridian; the highest point it gets when traversing across the sky....

When the object is at it's highest, you're shooting "through" the least amount of atmosphere you possibly can...

Shooting objects near the horizon increases the amount of atmosphere between you and the object.....and if the conditions aren't that great, they just get exacerbated....

Some have argued the "object near the horizon vs. amount of atmosphere", but I'm too dumb to know any better

Here on the North American continent, many amateur astronomers and astrophotographers use a nice tool called the "Clear Dark Sky Clock" maintained by a wonderful amateur, Atilla Danko, from Canada.
< http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/ >

See if there's something similar down under, or see if any of your local/national weather sites maintains astronomy conditions......e.g. seeing and transparency.....

Or, ignore all my advice (which most do anyway LOL!), go outside whenever you want, and just have a blast!

-TomD

[ak_powder_monkey]

you should be able to limit atmospheric haze by selecting a very specific part of the spectrum and making a monochrome image... Not sure if thats possible with consumer digital cameras, but it might work...