How to photograph MARS on XMas Eve

The planet MARS is expected to be clearly seen tonight in some parts of the world.

I need some pointers on how to shoot stars, planets using long exposure. (I have a Canon 40D digital and EOS-3 film cameras.)


Nature will unwrap a heavenly present Christmas Eve: A rare celestial event that for once can be easily seen despite the glare of South Florida's unblinking lights.

Except for a fat full moon, Mars will be the biggest and brightest object in the sky Monday night. It won't be so large or luminous again until 2016, and it won't take as high a path across the sky until 2040.

"This will be so bright, it'll just be dazzling," said Jack Horkheimer, director of the Space Transit Planetarium at the Miami Science Museum and host of the public TV program Star Gazer. "You can see how red Mars is: red, orange, gold."

Stars and long exposures don't work out, if you're trying to shoot the stars. I wouldn't go over a minute for a wide angle lens, and considerably less for a telephoto!

Well step one is not to be in the part of California I'm in. We're getting hit with the Santa Ana winds again and its carrying some more of the dust over here from the 270,000 acre fire that happened back in July. Its really annoying, I was going to go up on top of Lacumbra Peak and give it a shot, but I look out the window while I type this and cant even see the @!%& mountians, and they're only 6 !@*& miles away! Ahhh well it's Christmas, I'll go out in the morning and take pictures of the "dust" drifts.

For those that can see it it may be in fairly close proximity to the Moon, depending on where you're at. That would be a nice shot to get the two of them in the same frame.

Hmm, would HDR work for that? D=

i saw a star by the moon last night and thought it was mars, i guess i was right?

edit: I went outside with my 40D and turned on the live view and zoomed in to 10x with my brothers 50mm F1.2 L lense and took a gander at the moon and mars. It was very interesting, i then attached my 70-300mm cheapo lense and while zoomed in with live view the moon had ZERO detail like the 50mm. the 50mm had perfect clarity on the moons surface, it was really nice.

inernets wrote in post #4564529
i saw a star by the moon last night and thought it was mars, i guess i was right?

edit: I went outside with my 40D and turned on the live view and zoomed in to 10x with my brothers 50mm F1.2 L lense and took a gander at the moon and mars. It was very interesting, i then attached my 70-300mm cheapo lense and while zoomed in with live view the moon had ZERO detail like the 50mm. the 50mm had perfect clarity on the moons surface, it was really nice.

I tried some moon shots with my Sigma 70-300 APO and they sucked. That lens is really soft at 300mm and it kills moon shots. I'm going to try around 200mm or 220mm tonight, its sharp around there. Cheap lenses suck

Stump wrote in post #4566183
I tried some moon shots with my Sigma 70-300 APO and they sucked. That lens is really soft at 300mm and it kills moon shots. I'm going to try around 200mm or 220mm tonight, its sharp around there. Cheap lenses suck

I totally agree

Stump wrote in post #4566183
I tried some moon shots with my Sigma 70-300 APO and they sucked. That lens is really soft at 300mm and it kills moon shots. I'm going to try around 200mm or 220mm tonight, its sharp around there. Cheap lenses suck

I've got the Sigma 70-300 APO

It's what I've got, so it's what I use. Mars from last night, and the moon from a year ago.