Lunar Landscape Photography. Only me right?

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Today was the "night" I have been waiting for, a FULL MOON, Clear Skies and at 1oC is "warm" for January in Calgary! Perfect night to bring out the new 1000mm f10 lens, a pair of x2 Teleconverters and do some lunar landscape photography. After all, why settle for only "earth" shots with my lenses? haha.

Well, I just took the whole roll of film.. 24 shots on Fuji Superia 400ISO. I think 200ISO would of been fine though. I will be happy if 5 of the 24 shots come out great. :)

Equipment Used: MTO 1000CA f10 Mirror Two Vivitar X2 Teleconverters Model 2X-7

Here are some of my observations of the 1000mm, 2000mm and 4000mm moon shots!

@1000mm f10: ------------

Moon is easily visible and covers about 1/4 of the whole 35mm frame. Moon details are visible like craters, but are still small. Very bright and "easy" to focus. This was the 2nd time I have seen the moon at 1000mm (but was 1000mm f16 with a 2x TC). Really is just something awesome to see in a camera lens!

@2000mm f20: ------------

Moon is easily visible and covers about 1/2 of the whole 35mm frame. Moon details are very visible, craters, seas and even impacts can be seen!. Still somewhat Bright but focusing takes time and is a little picky. This was the 1st time I have seen the moon at 2000mm. I would never of though I would own a lens I can fill the moon in! Holly #$@ it is a sight to see!

@4000mm f40: ------------

Moon is "in your face" and covers the WHOLE 35mm frame. Macro 1:1 with the moon? haha. Moon details are very very visible, craters, seas, "rivers", the US Flag on the surface and even impacts can be seen!. (ok, joking about seeing the US Flag there). Brightness is "OK" focusing takes a lot of time and is picky, even a few millimeters of a turn on the focus ring can bring it in or out of focus. Camera shake was hard to compensate with. This was the 1st time I have seen the moon at 4000mm, and the closest I have ever seen it. I never thought I would own a lens (or telescope) that would bring me so close. The moon is bigger than the 35mm frame of film and I have to take shots of it in 1/3 sections. I must be crazy to have wanted to get a lens that could do this. I don't mean to brag at all, just I'm excited at the potential results. Focusing was hard to do and at f40 you have to "wing it" a little, so I don't expect more than 1 picture to be "in focus".

All pictures were taken at 1 second or BULB setting using 400ISO Fuji Superia Film and a Velbon tripod on its sturdiest setting and low to the ground. Camera shake at 1000mm and above is hard to compensate for so I used a manual shutter release cable and the cameras self timer to minimise shake. I also used a 116mm 81A, and a 116mm Orange filter. (each filter is all metal and glass weights in at 1lb each!)

Can't wait for the photos to come back from the lab.

Any suggestions on whatelse to try or shoot at 4000mm ? haha.

Have fun and enjoy yourself out there, Mike LePard http://photobluebook.virtualave.net/

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Answers

Good Luck!

I have tried taking shots of the moon with less powerful lenses and my Konicas without any success. This may be beyond the capabilites of these otherwize excellent cameras.

I don't think you will be able to get great images because it is near impossible to eliminate camera vibration with the older Konica bodies and the movement of the moon in sky for exposures as short as 1 second will be a fuzz factor.

Good Luck and please post your results

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001


Good Luck

Hi Hal!

I understand the problem with apparent movement of the moon but I don't understand your comment about camera vibration. I use either a T2 or a T3 on my microscopes at up to 1000X and exposures of 3 or 4 seconds and don't have a problem with camera vibration, Of course I lock up the mirror before taking the picture...

Lee

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001


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