The Moon

[Rocket]

I found this on youtube. Pretty good.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLBWrH7-9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7L2gi782NY

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by Rocket

I think you are talking about the inversion produced by astronomical telescopes. Or I may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

That's correct. Astronomical/planetary images are also displayed with South at the top.

You can however take lots of short exposures, then stack, align and merge them together using a pc and suitable software.

I used Registax to produce the long exposure photo of the Lyra Ring Nebula (Post 14). Even with a driven camera, the field rotation sent it sideways over 20 minutes.

What telescope have you got. I used to do a bit myself many years ago.

It's an old Meade 10" LX200. In this photo it has a Philips webcam attached. That's what I used for the Nebula shot.



TC

[Rocket]

OOOh!

I'd loved to have had a go with that.

I have only been trying to photograph astromomial things for a week but I tried registax and shooting some avi video without much success. I got better results using the same camera and lens, shooting a few raw images and stacking those in Enfuse. I'll give it another week and I'll get fed up with the cold and dark.

[Gate Keeper]

This adds another dimension to something I am just discovering. I see that from the southern hemisphere someone commented on Youtube that the moon appears to be upside down and that the moon does not have a top or a bottom.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/moonrise.html

The above site informs me that the next full moon can be seen from where I am on the 8 March at 7.01 pm

A few days for me to go out and get a proper tripod as the pocket spider one I bought is no good for looking up and does not pan.

Mr. T-Cut have you any more shots you could share with us? Any advice on how I should compensate in shooting the moon given it is in constant rotation, or is it a question of taking a series of shots continuously and just being lucky?

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

This adds another dimension to something I am just discovering. I see that from the southern hemisphere someone commented on You Tube that the moon appears to be upside down and that the moon does not have a top or a bottom.

It looks upside down compared with the view from the Northern hemisphere. For observers on the equator it appears sideways compared with the view from the North or South end of Earth. It's all relative to some other location. Convention says the North pole of the Moon is at the top as observed by eye from the North Earth, but there's no such thing as top and bottom is spacial terms. You feel the 'right' way up anywhere on Earth. You need to imagine you're floating somewhere out in space looking at Earth and Moon to understand it better.

The above site informs me that the next full moon can be seen from where I am on the 8 March at 7.01 pm

Photography of the full Moon is often disappointing because there's no shadows to bring out the details. Much better to watch telly at full Moon and await the other phases when there's some contrast.

Any advice on how I should compensate in shooting the moon given it is in constant rotation, or is it a question of taking a series of shots continuously and just being lucky?

It all depends on the magnification you're attempting. If the complete Moon will fit easily in a frame, then you can expose for longer. High magnification (100X plus) using even a half second exposure will blur. The Moon moves across the sky at approximately 15 degrees an hour, so in a high power lens it will zoom across the field.

The ideal rig is to have the camera on a motorised mount so it turns against the Earth's rotation. Large telescopes have a driven mouting by default, but I've read of people rigging up their own camera mounting. The axis of rotation for the mount should be inclined at an angle which the same as the latitude of the observing site. In the UK that means around 50 degrees, but Google Earth will give you it exactly. The usual arrangement is to make some sort of wedge using latitude for the angle from horizontal. You then have to align the rotation with the Earth's rotation. This means pointing the axis more or less at Polaris (the star). You can probably get away by adjusting the rotation by hand for lowish power using some sort of sighting device on the Moon. Very high powers will need a motorised system which can become very expensive. It would be simpler to buy a driven telescope and fit your camera on that.

TC

[Gate Keeper]

Thanks TC for your very detailed reply. On reflection, I will stick to taking photos of the wild life on earth and to taking a pot shot at the moon now and again. Good luck to you and thanks for the tips. Very informative

[Rocket]

Although top and bottom are meaningless in space it is worth noting most bodies spin on an axis giving two poles and may have some sort of magnetic field (owever weak) giving a north and south. This doesn't matter much for every day looking at the moon as it turns on it's axis once a month (29.5 days) and we always see the same side (I believe there is a bit of wobble so we see slightly more than half).


http://gizmodo.com/5838323/the-moon-...seen-it-before

Phil

When shooting the full moon you will most likely be shooting a 100th or 200th of a second approx. (suck it and see) So even with your HX40 at it's longest focal length you will most likely be ok regarding the earth's rotation. That last shot of the moon I did was at 1/80th and the moon will be brighter when you try. You could always take a few at a shorter focal length and compare them.


Edit: you beat me to it Phil. Just give it a go if you are out. There are lot's of shots on the net of people using bridge camera and some are hand held.

[Gate Keeper]

I will give it a go Paul and try different focal lengths, and if possible try to avoid shots where there are no shadows. I checked out meade.com as I was curious about the scope TC showed in his photos. Astronomy looks to be expensive even though it is fascinating and hopefully I have not understated this.

[Canonite]

When shooting in P mode the camera will assume the settings for you, it's kind of like a semi-automatic mode.
If you want to retain control you need to use either M, A or S modes.

[T-Cut]

Just a head-up for anyone interested in imaging Auroras. There's an unusually massive solar mass ejection heading to Earth and will arrive Thursday. Thursday night may provide a rare show of the aurora in some parts of the UK. It's so massive, airlines have re-routed flights over North Polar regions and satellite communiations could be disrupted. On the other hand, you may see nothing at all.

TC