Yet Another Moon Snap!

The moon was very inviting tonight. I placed my 80mm refractor on my flimsy photography mount and attached my D7000. I used live focus to get a sharp image but this could be sharper. Anyway, some nice detail here. I need to get a better tripod.

• Nikon D7000
• AstroTelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
• Cheap, unstable and awkward camera tripod
• 1/750 second exposure
• ISO200
• F7

Early October Moon

Tonight was the first chance I've had to get out under the night sky in a long time! I took this shot of the Moon while waiting to image some DSOs. If any of those come out nicely, I'll post them to the blog soon.

Super Moon!!!!

Here's a shot of the Moon shortly after Moonrise on March 19, 2011. The Moon has not been this close to the Earth since 1993.

Nikon D7000, Sigma 70-200 F2.8.

Two exposures:

• Moon - 1/30 sec @ F2.8
• Landscape - 3s @ F2.8

Shooting La Luna

A moon shot I took this evening while trying to unwind. Still a bit soft, focus-wise.

• Nikon D7000
• Sigma 70-200
• 1/500 sec exposure @ F4.8

Bullialdus Region

Here is a photo of an interesting lunar region. Compare it to the map copied from Virtual Moon Atlas. The crater Ballialdus sits nicely in the top right, and you can see some decent ridge detail within its walls. Amongst the other craters to the West, are a series of rilles which are rather striking. It's a pretty neat site through the eyepiece and makes for an interesting image, IMHO.

My image:

























Virtual Moon Atlas Representation:

Big Moon December 12!

Tonight (December 12th) the moon will look much larger and brighter than usual. That's because of a combination of two things:

a. The moon is at Perigee (i.e. closest to the Earth in its orbit around us)
b. Full moon phase

It's somewhat rare that this occurs at the same time. The last time the moon was anywhere near this close to Earth (relatively speaking) was in 1993.

I should have really taken an image at moonrise, when it appeared absolutely massive as it sat just above the horizon. But I was out with the kids and couldn't, so took an image when it was much higher in the sky.

So, below is the photo I took of it with my Nikon D40 DSLR and William Optics 66mm.