Obsessed

I am completely obsessed with taking pictures of the moon!  I know they all look the same but it is so much fun.  I can get the right exposure pretty quickly now, espcially compared to the first time I tried.

I walked by the window tonight and glanced out.  I saw a full bright moon and got so excited. I had to go out and shoot. 

And one from earlier this week

Night Sky

I tried to catch the Pan-Starr comet that was supposed to be visible in the western sky.  However, we have some very large mountains blocking the view.  I was kind of bummed we could not see it, but I'd rather the mountains be there.

I got these instead- a sliver of a moon.

This is why you use MANUAL

It has been about 3 months since I have seen a nice bright full moon.  We just haven't had clear skies at the right time.  I've been waiting and waiting.  Last night was it. I went out on sat on our front porch to practice shooting the moon. 

And now I know why I am learning manual.  There is no comparison between auto and manual.
Pic 1- Auto
Pic 2- Manual

(These have been cropped to make larger)
Evidence of what manual mode can do.  Incredible.

Tonight we are getting out the 500 mm and a 2X teleconverter lens to see what they can do!

f11, 1/320 sec, ISO 400, 300 mm.

Lesson learned:  All my first images were way over exposed.  I thought since it was dark out I needed to adjust for the dark.  However, the moon is incredibly bright.  So once I slowed down the shutter, took the ISO way down from what I had it at, and found a smaller aperture...it came out beautiful.


I also want to compare 55mm to 300mm.

And just a few more settings



f/29, 1/4000 sec, ISO 400



f/29, ISO 1/320 sec, ISO 400