Super Moon
Tonight is one of those nights when the moon appears bigger than it usually does. This is called a super moon and tonight, with clear skies, I was lucky enough to see it. The longest lens I have is 70mm (I have a 400mm lens on my Amazon wish list) so it’s not a brilliant picture as I’ve had to crop so tightly but even so, the Tycho crater is clearly visible at the bottom of the moon.. :-)
70mm f/5.6 1/400 sec ISO-100
Cornwall Photographic 
I hope that doesn’t mean I’ve missed it, am planning on going out tonight to photograph the moon. I managed to get a lend of a Sigma 150-500mm lens just for doing the moon, though if the super moon was last night, then I missed it. Wouldn’t have been able to get it anyway, overcast and yuck last night. Great shot for the lens you were using Adrian.
July 11, 2014 at 10:55 pm
Thank you Leanne! The moon should still be nice and full tonight. Hope the skies are clearer for you!
July 12, 2014 at 10:37 am
Lovely shot. I attempted one with the moon peeking through the weeping willow branched last night, but alas it didn’t go well. :(
July 11, 2014 at 11:16 pm
Thank you Gunta. Sorry to hear your shot didn’t go as planned. There’s another moon tonight. :-)
July 12, 2014 at 10:39 am
Very nice capture Chillbrook. I haven’t had much success with the moon yet. This is great :)
July 12, 2014 at 12:44 am
Thank you Norma. I’ve tried a few times before with little success. A nice long lens certainly helps. The D800 sensor is such that I was able to get away with a very tight crop but it’s not perfect by any means. It’s all about having a go and seeing what works. :-)
July 12, 2014 at 10:36 am
Beautiful capture!
July 12, 2014 at 2:27 am
Thank you Sheila! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Such a wonderful magical sight in the sky ChillB … I hope I can capture it soon too ;-)
July 12, 2014 at 8:00 am
I’m sure you will Poppy, Thank you! You’ve got that smashing lens to work with! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for sharing this info. I am a newbie to photography and tried to shoot this same photo last night. All I got were a bunch of white cast or a small white dot of the moon, terrible, I used my 200mm lens and tried so many different setting until I just gave up. I will try to catch it tonight now that you have valuable information. There is so much to learn about the fstop and iso, too confusing. Some days I can get the settings correct and take beautiful pics.
July 12, 2014 at 1:52 pm
You’re very welcome! It can be very confusing when you first start out especially with a subject like the moon that is so bright in the sky. I’d set you f stop to f8 and leave it there. Now all you have to worry about is shutter speed. Focus on the moon, ignore what the light meter in the camera is telling you. Start at about 400th of a second and if that’s too dark, work downwards, slowing the shutter speed a little more each time. If at 400th second your moon is still overexposed, increase the shutter speed until it’s right. I’m sure you’ll get a decent picture with your 200mm lens and these setting. Good luck! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 5:03 pm
A super sphere—or rectangle, for that matter. :)
July 12, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Thank you very much! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 5:05 pm
A perfect image, Adrian. A lovely sight indeed. :)
July 12, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Thank you Sylvia. It was indeed! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 6:17 pm
Nice one, Adrian. Maybe I will see this moon again sitting over Porth Nanven!
July 12, 2014 at 5:44 pm
Thank you Malcolm. I have a feeling it might crop up, here and there! :-)
July 12, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Very nice this moon and a great shot.
July 12, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Thank you Isabel!
July 13, 2014 at 7:42 am
Very nice!
July 12, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Thank you Scott! It was a beautiful sight, watching the moon rise.
July 13, 2014 at 7:42 am
I’m too late, I missed it! Thanks for sharing, Adrian, at least I get to see it though your camera. :D
July 13, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Thank you Camilla. Sorry you missed it. It was very lucky that I happened to notice the moon rising while I was talking to a friend who’s interested in astronomy and he said it was a super moon and perhaps I should try and get a picture. It was also very lucky that the sky was so clear. There’ll be another along.. I should think with the zoom on your camera you should get a really good image. :-)
July 13, 2014 at 6:10 pm
It wasn’t a super moon, but I took a shot with my PS last year: http://caleephotography.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/one/ I’ll make a new attempt (with a tripod!) another time!
July 13, 2014 at 8:02 pm
That’s a really cool shot. I think even at fast shutter speeds, taking a picture like that a tripod is a must but considering this was handheld, it’s brilliant. The Tycho crater is so clear! :-)
July 13, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Beautiful! I like it!
July 14, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Brilliant enough for a handheld shot with a 70mm lens!!!
July 14, 2014 at 4:19 pm
Thank you Madhu! :-)
July 15, 2014 at 7:52 am
Super clarity despite the lack of a long lens
July 14, 2014 at 5:36 pm
Thanks Andy. The D800e’s amazing sensor allows for such a close crop. I have a friend with a telescope and we’re just discussing the possibility of attaching my camera to the telescope and seeing what we can see. It’ll be an interesting experiment. There are various connection kits available but attaching such a heavy camera to a relatively small telescope and then expecting the telescope to track correctly is presenting some headaches. We’ll probably have to rely on no tracking and employing the 500 rule to get the maximum exposure time without blur. I’ll be posting my results in the next few weeks hopefully, that’s if we get it working. I’m sure we’ll get something.
July 15, 2014 at 7:57 am
I’ll be very interested to hear how you get on and how attaching a camera works out. My daughter’s fiancee has recently bought a sizeable telescope and we were discussing the options for using it for photography quite recently.
July 15, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Beautiful capture Adrian – you did well with such a short lens! I missed it because I was with friends and their home doesn’t face the moon :-( BUMMER
July 15, 2014 at 5:50 am
Thank you Tina. It was an impressive moon that’s for sure. Sorry you missed it. We were so lucky having such a clear sky.
July 15, 2014 at 7:58 am
nice details :)
July 15, 2014 at 6:02 am
Thank you Joshi! :-)
July 15, 2014 at 7:58 am
The moon is really such a fascinating globe. With all its craters and ridges it’s no wonder man has been fantasising about the moon since the dawn of our existence. It’s quite a capture with “only” a 70 mm lens. Very nice, Adrian.
July 15, 2014 at 9:56 am
Thanks Otto. 70mm is pretty long for me on the whole but it wasn’t quite long enough on this occasion. :-) I think I’ll be keeping a closer eye on the phases of the moon and having another try. It does make for a fascinating image, the moon has clearly been battered about quite a bit over the millennia. Astrophotography does hold quite a bit of interest for me but so much expensive equipment is required if you want to track the stars during the course of an exposure. As I said to Andy, I have a friend with a telescope and we’re going to see if we can get some images in a few weeks time. I hope that we can. Of course, finding somewhere dark is a big problem on our crowded island. :-)
July 15, 2014 at 12:59 pm
Wow! I wouldn’t even begin to fathom how to get this shot. Beautiful!
July 16, 2014 at 2:35 am
Thank you Elena. :-)
July 18, 2014 at 7:58 am
Great details in that super moon! Well done, Adrian.
July 16, 2014 at 3:16 am
Thank you Karen. I would like to get one, really good image of the moon one of these days. I’ll keep trying! :-)
July 18, 2014 at 7:55 am