Beginner Shooting the moon, advice please.

Crotal Bell

Crotal Bell

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Keith
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Hi folks

So far I have had my focus trained solely on the moon, and I notice there are no stars on the images. If I edit and highlight/contrast a lot, the stars come into picture.

Should I use a full screen all-area focus option, and would that capture the stars? or would that ruin the sharpness of the moon?
Is it better to lose the stars in favour of a precise zoom on the moon?

Here's my examples, using a budget zoom bridge camera. I think the moon looks better with the slight edit. In my opinion, dragging the stars into view ruined the moon, but this could all be down to poor technique and the wrong focussing options on my part?
Moon 2.jpgMoon 4.jpg
 
I think it's going to be difficult as to stop the moon blowing you'll be using a fast shutter speed and although bright stars in the frame may be visible others may need a longer shutter speed to show up, and of course with a longer shutter speed the moon will blow and also blur. Maybe you do two exposures and blend them?

Maybe google 300 or 500 rule and that'll give you some clues for stars but stars + moon... Hmmmm... Maybe difficult. Unless someone knows better... :D

PS.
For stars, Shutter Speed = 300 or 500 / Focal Length.

EG.
300/20= 15 seconds.
 
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Next time you look at the Moon with your naked eyes, see how many stars (or even planets) you can see at the same time.

I'm guessing that the shutter speeds Alan's quoting are the slowest you can reasonably go before stars start trailing rather than showing up as points.
 
woof woof said:
I think it's going to be difficult as to stop the moon blowing you'll be using a fast shutter speed and although bright stars in the frame may be visible others may need a longer shutter speed to show up, and of course with a longer shutter speed the moon will blow and also blur. Maybe you do two exposures and blend them?

Maybe google 300 or 500 rule and that'll give you some clues for stars but stars + moon... Hmmmm... Maybe difficult. Unless someone knows better... :D

PS.
For stars, Shutter Speed = 300 or 500 / Focal Length.

EG.
300/20= 15 seconds.
Click to expand...
Thanks Alan, I was experimenting with shutter speeds and iSO last night, also tried Shutter Priority Mode. I guess the fast shutter speed and lower ISO will give a darker image but sharper, and more to work with in post editing?
 
Nod said:
Next time you look at the Moon with your naked eyes, see how many stars (or even planets) you can see at the same time.

I'm guessing that the shutter speeds Alan's quoting are the slowest you can reasonably go before stars start trailing rather than showing up as points.
Click to expand...
I hadn't thought of that. I guess the camera sees the two in the same way as we do to a large extent.
 
The moon is reflecting sunlight so is literally almost bright as day if you are able to zoom in enough to fill a good part of the frame.
If you are zoomed in quite a bit you need a reasonably fast shutter as it 'moves' in the frame much faster than you might think.
It is usually more interesting when not full as you might see some shadows in craters and perhaps sun just catching high points in the unlit area.
 
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As far as focus is concerned, everything's so far away if you're focussed on the Moon you'll be focussed on stars. As far as not seeing Moon and stars in the image - if you want to image the Moon you need a much shorter exposure and if you want to image stars you need a much longer exposure. If you really wanted both you could take 2 images and combine them, but with all those lovely jaggedy craters down the side of a less-than-full Moon it'd be difficult. And you could get movement of the Moon. Have a look at Moon images and see how many (if any) also show stars.
I spot-focus on the Moon (it can take a few goes becuse of the relative lack of contrast but it's nothing like trying to grab focus on the Sun. Spotting the edge helps) then switch to manual focus to lock it. You may not be able to do that on your camera.
 
Nod said:
Next time you look at the Moon with your naked eyes, see how many stars (or even planets) you can see at the same time.

I'm guessing that the shutter speeds Alan's quoting are the slowest you can reasonably go before stars start trailing rather than showing up as points.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's it but you also need a slower shutter speed to bring out the less bright stars that wont show up at shooting the moon sort of speeds.

I once took two pictures, one for the moon and another for the stars and just cloned the moon across... It wasn't a very successful attempt and of course apart from the moon you've got a brighter area around it but spending more time and care could I suppose get you somewhere. Blending images seems a good option.

Other than those two suggestions I haven't got an answer for how you could get both stars and the moon, maybe someone else has...
 
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4wd said:
The moon is reflecting sunlight so is literally almost bright as day if you are able to zoom in enough to fill a good part of the frame.
If you are zoomed in quite a bit you need a reasonably fast shutter as it 'moves' in the frame much faster than you might think.
It is usually more interesting when not full as you might see some shadows in craters and perhaps sun just catching high points in the unlit area.
Click to expand...
Great advice thank you, I didn't really try a "fast" shutter speed, but I will tonight. I agree, a partial moon has more interesting features available.
 
Jannyfox said:
As far as focus is concerned, everything's so far away if you're focussed on the Moon you'll be focussed on stars. As far as not seeing Moon and stars in the image - if you want to image the Moon you need a much shorter exposure and if you want to image stars you need a much longer exposure. If you really wanted both you could take 2 images and combine them, but with all those lovely jaggedy craters down the side of a less-than-full Moon it'd be difficult. And you could get movement of the Moon. Have a look at Moon images and see how many (if any) also show stars.
I spot-focus on the Moon (it can take a few goes becuse of the relative lack of contrast but it's nothing like trying to grab focus on the Sun. Spotting the edge helps) then switch to manual focus to lock it. You may not be able to do that on your camera.
Click to expand...
Excellent, thanks for the feedback.
 
woof woof said:
Yes, that's it but you also need a slower shutter speed to bring out the less bright stars that wont show up at shooting the moon sort of speeds.

I once took two pictures, one for the moon and another for the stars and just cloned the moon across... It wasn't a very successful attempt and of course apart from the moon you've got a brighter area around it but spending more time and care could I suppose get you somewhere. Blending images seems a good option.

Other than those two suggestions I haven't got an answer for how you could get both stars and the moon, maybe someone else has...
Click to expand...
That's helped a lot, now I realise it's hard to shoot stars and moon, so I know I'm not making a basic error.
 
Tonights effort. Quite pleased with this, I didn't over-sharpen, just tidied a bit. I do agree with some of the comments, the moon shots are more interesting when it's a part moon and there's more shadowing and surface detail to see.
Best 14 May 22.jpg
 
Just for fun :)

EPFqzGF.jpg
 
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