Shooting For the Moon

Shooting For the Moon

Shooting For the Moon, This weekend was perfect weather for sitting outside in the evening and watch the moon travel across the sky. Mosquitos tried to make a comeback early in the evening, but then the wind picked up and they did not have a chance after that. This time of year I love to go outside at night to take photo’s of our beautiful planets above, come winter, the cameras don’t do well at night, nor do I.

Trying to get a crisp clear photo of the moon is just a little difficult with a regular camera. I use a 600 mm lens and it does pretty well. But when you think of how much space is between my lens and the moon, I am in awe at what I see every time.

Shooting For the Moon

When you photograph something outside of our atmosphere, there is a fair amount of air between you and the subject. The thickness of Earthโ€™s atmosphere is approximately 300 miles, with most of the dense air in the lower altitudes (obviously). Light is transmitted from the sun (or stars) or reflected from the moon (and planets) and it travels through the vacuum of space until it reaches earth. Once it arrives in the atmosphere, all your sharpness bets are off.

Then add some motion like clouds rolling in and trees blowing in the wind. I am just grateful that earth has a protective shield around it that gives us air to breath and protects us from the harshness of outer space. It is mind boggling to me sometimes to sit here and look up into the heavens at night and just wonder how big it really is and how small we really are.

Shooting For the Moon

This shot looks like the moon is on fire and rolling across the clouds to me.

Shooting For the Moon

by Sandra J

84 Replies to “Shooting For the Moon”

          1. oh thank you. It’s my first time writing in prose form. Otherwise I wrote on poetry.Like step, If, some, Beauty etc.

  1. Stunning pictures ๐Ÿ˜ On seeing Moon, indescribable calmness and peace settles in your heart. Such a magnificent creation of the Creator.

    1. Yes it is, amazing to see the heavens at night not knowing what all is up there except for Him for sure. ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Amazing to see the moon where it looks close enough to reach out and touch it. When you were younger, were you told about the moon being made of cheese and the Man in the Moon? I’m assuming these weren’t just Canadian tales told to kids.

    1. Yes, I heard the same stories and we tried to picture a face on the moon when you could see the different shadows on it. ๐Ÿ™‚

      1. Those were the days weren’t they Sandra. I thought it might be something that might even be a global story … it probably happened in the Summer when we got to stay up later and sat outside collecting fireflies and looked up.

  3. Stunning Picture ….. I would need 1 on a canvas for my bedroom it’s 100% lit

  4. Wow, your moon captures are staggeringly beautiful, Sandra and so is your photography! I am constantly amazed by your ability to capture the world around us in a way that makes me stop scrolling through WordPress posts! Thanks for sharing and have a nice day ๐Ÿ™‚ Aiva xxx

    1. Thank you very much Aiva, I appreciate that. There is so much beauty around us everyday, sometimes I can not get it all in. The moon and the stars are so mesmerizing, I never get tired of photographing them. Have a wonderful day. ๐Ÿ˜Š

  5. Greetings from India,
    This shot looks really beautiful and reminds me of good old 70s moon shots in hindi movies.Gives us a warm feel. Thanks Smriti

  6. Well Thank you Dr. Sandra. Amazing pictures and an astronomy lecture as well. Frankly what I find amazing is the 600 mm lens you used is bigger than the telescope Galileo invented, and he discovered 5 planets. Great photos
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    Laugh, because… Why Not!!

  7. Thanks Sandra. Amazing pictures. How did you arrive at the different shots, one with so much detail and the other so luminescent?

    1. It is all in the camera settings. The moon by itself is easier to get details out of by focusing only on that. But when the trees or clouds are in the same frame, the camera tends to focus easier on those, even in manual focus, so the moon is just the background light. Plus it was windy out, so everything was moving. It all comes down to the shutter speed, the faster the shutter speed the more detail in the moon. But at night, the only way to see the clouds and trees is to slow down your shutter speed to let enough light in the camera to see them, in turn the moon is so bright it will glow more and more the longer the shutter stays open.

      1. Thanks. I obviously know next to nothing about photography but I know more now. I appreciate the lesson. Youโ€™re a good teacher.

    1. It is amazing to see isn’t it. Back in the day, one could only see what the moon really looked like from books. Now to be able to take a photo of it and see all the craters and colors is fascinating to me also.

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