Moon photo - not sharp?

[lolage]

Hi, went out tonight to try and get a shot of the moon seeing as it was so close to jupiter!

I'm not very happy really, it doesn't exactly look very sharp. I tried numerous settings but just couldnt get it looking good..?

Any help is appreciated! My lens is a Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di.


moon by BenMDavies, on Flickr

100%

 

[Gonetae]

Hi Ben, I took a look at your full size shot on your Flickr and it looks like you have got some motion blur in the shot. I thought it was camera shake initially but your Exif data shows an exposure time of 2.5secs so I assume you have tripod mounted your camera and the motion blur is coming from the actual movement of the moon across the sky.

I've usually got a shutter speed of around 1/100th of a second or faster for any moon stuff I have done. The moon is moving pretty fast and is bright enough that you can't really go for a slower shutter speed or it will overexpose and show motion.

Your first shot in the post looks fine I think at that size though. There are some great astro-togs on the forum though and I'm sure they can offer better or more detailed advice than myself. I've added a shot from myself but just yell if you would rather I removed it. It was also shot with a 70-300mm iirc, the Sigma version though. The settings for this one were

1/200th sec shutter speed
f/8 aperture
100 ISO

 

[lolage]

Hi Ben, I took a look at your full size shot on your Flickr and it looks like you have got some motion blur in the shot. I thought it was camera shake initially but your Exif data shows an exposure time of 2.5secs so I assume you have tripod mounted your camera and the motion blur is coming from the actual movement of the moon across the sky.

I've usually got a shutter speed of around 1/100th of a second or faster for any moon stuff I have done. The moon is moving pretty fast and is bright enough that you can't really go for a slower shutter speed or it will overexpose and show motion.

Your first shot in the post looks fine I think at that size though. There are some great astro-togs on the forum though and I'm sure they can offer beter or more detailed advice than myself. I've added a shot from myself but just yell if you would rather I removed it. It was also shot with a 70-300mm iirc, the Sigma version though. The settings for this one were

1/200th sec shutter speed
f/8 aperture
100 ISO

Cheers dude for your input! Makes perfect sense now.

Actually just found a shot which I missed earlier where I did try a faster shutter speed. Still pretty long at 1.3seconds but I can see more detail in the moon.

I think next time I will try multiple shots at a faster shutter and stack them?


moon2 by BenMDavies, on Flickr

 

[Gonetae]

Glad I could help. I'm not sure what you mean about stacking them sorry You mean take a seperate shot each of the moon and Jupiter and then combine them to get both in same shot? if so, aye that would work.

I've heard some of the astro guys also talk about stacking shots but not something I've ever looked into myself so mibbes you mean something else that one of them could help ye with.

 

[lolage]

Glad I could help. I'm not sure what you mean about stacking them sorry You mean take a seperate shot each of the moon and Jupiter and then combine them to get both in same shot? if so, aye that would work.

I've heard some of the astro guys also talk about stacking shots but not something I've ever looked into myself so mibbes you mean something else that one of them could help ye with.

I meant that I'd take multiple shots of the same shot to bring out more detail in the moon that maybe 1 photo wouldnt? Just remember reading it somewhere and it kind of made sense!

 

[ScottBass86]

Hi,

There's some information on stacking HERE. This is probably where you've seen it.
I'm going to give it a whirl as soon as I can.

Scott