Full Blue Moon & Lunar Eclipse Photography - New Years Eve 2009

If you live in Americas, Europe and Africa the full moon falls on December 31, 2009, and is called Blue Moon. Blue Moon because it is a second full moon in December; thus the definition of the blue moon being two full moons in one month. The name has nothing to do with the color of the moon. This also will be a 13th full moon in 2009. The next full Blue Moon can be expected on December 31, 2028, 19 years from now. In other parts of the world like New Zealand, Australia and most of the Asia, this full moon falls on January 1st, 2010. In this case, those parts of the world will have two full moons in January 2010.


The lunar eclipse will be visible primarily from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Why not get your camera ready and get some nice pictures if the weather permits, otherwise, you will have to wait another 19 years.

Here are few of my posts on moon photography.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Tips and guides on lunar cycle and checking weather conditions.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Suggestions on what equipment you may need.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings
General settings to help you get nice close up pictures of the moon.

How to Take Picture of the Moon - Digital Camera Tips and Guides

Sometimes information can be buried between the blog posts, therefore here are summarized links to the three posts on how to take pictures of the moon, especially if you looking to take close up pictures. They focus on the environment around you, digital equipment requirements and settings.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Tips and guides on lunar cycle and checking weather conditions.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Suggestions on what equipment you may need.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings
General settings to help you get nice close up pictures of the moon.

Above moon photo courtesy of My Only Photo blog.

“I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it” ~ by Albert Einstein

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings

We know that weather is going to be good and you went out and spend thousands of dollars on your new digital camera equipment, now you need to know settings on your camera to take nice close up photo of the moon.

This tutorial is very simple. All you need to know is how to change metering mode and exposure on your camera. Refer to your manual. However, this is what you need to look for.

If you have SLR camera, then the camera most likely has three metering modes: evaluative [square brackets with circle with dot in the middle], partial [square brackets with circle without a dot] and center-weighted average metering [just a bracket without a circle and dot].


For taking photo of the moon you will need to set your camera to partial metering mode. This mode is effective when the background is much brighter than the subject or darker, in our case it is darker, and the moon is brighter. The partial metering mode covers fewer than 10% of the viewfinder area at the centre. These modes are usually changed using knobs on the camera, at least in my case on my Canon EOS 20D.

If you have point-and-shoot camera, than most likely you have the following three metering modes that are usually changed using menus: evaluative [square brackets with circle with dot in the middle], center-weighted average metering [just a bracket without a circle and dot] and spot [square brackets with circle without a dot] metering. The spot metering in point-and-shoot camera is same as partial metering in SLR. This is in reference to Canon EOS 20D and Canon PowerShot SD600. The spot metering meters the area within the spot AE point at the centre of the LCD monitor.

In addition to all above you need to find out on your camera how to adjust the exposure. Standard exposure level is when the level mark is in the middle or at zero.

Easy Digital Camera Settings for Taking Photo of the Moon
[0] Set your camera to Programmed Mode P where Av and Tv is automatically adjusted, however, still letting you set all the parameters as asked below. You can do it manually, but why not take the advantage of the camera’s intelligence and save yourself a time. Do not try Fully Auto Mode.
[1] Set up your camera on the tripod or stable object to support your arms.
[2] Set to ISO 200. You do not need higher than that, as the moon is already very bright. Higher ISO will make photo grainy.
[3] Set or ensure that the AF focal point is on the centre of the view finder.
[4] Set the metering mode to Partial on SLR or Spot on Point-and-Shoot. A very important setting, otherwise, the moon will be one big bright ball.
[5] Set focal length to 300mm or 400mm. This is if you have any of the lenses with that focal length, or set to maximum on your lens.
[6] Set Exposure to -1. You may want to experiment with this depending how bright the moon is, some times you may go as low as -2.

Note the Following
Av the Aperture priority mode - is the lens opening
Tv the Shutter priority mode - is the shutter speed
In the P Programmed mode these are adjusted automatically.


REFERENCES
[1] Moon Photography: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip
[2] A Bit of Knowledge: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip For SLR Digital Cameras
[3] How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
[4] How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: March 03, 2009

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required

Now that you have scheduled an appointment with the moon and checked with the weatherman for sky conditions, you are ready to take photos. However, do you know what digital equipment is required to take photos of the moon. As a matter of fact, you have to realize that to take close up pictures of the moon you will require certain level of digital equipment.



What Equipment is the Best for Taking Pictures of the Moon?
Depending what results you are looking for, close up picture of the moon or moon part of the landscape – this will determine what equipment you will need. For landscape results you can try shooting with simple point-and-shoot digital camera. However, for close up picture of the moon you will need digital camera with a zoom lens. Best results you can achieve with 75-300mm or 100-400mm telephoto lens with your SLR* or DSLR* camera. It is also possible to get some photos with point-and-shoot camera that has at least 12x optical zoom [Canon PowerShot S5IS 8.0MP with 12x Optical Zoom], and in addition you can incorporate a digital zoom. Remember, digital zoom is not actual zooming; it is done by camera’s software - interpolation and cropping of the image.

*SLR & DSLR – Single-Lens Reflex & Digital Single-Lens Reflex

Interesting reading on the photographer’s dream lens: The World's Largest Telephoto Lens

Another piece of equipment may be necessary is the tripod. If possible get a well structured one to eliminate vibrations. Usually with larger lenses vibration is not avoidable. The vibration usually occurs on each camera click – it is the pushing force with your finger on the camera that will cause this vibration. Then you probably need a trigger. There are wireless triggers on the market that may be available for your digital camera. However, if you are cheap and do not want to spend anymore money on your equipment, simply try to rest your camera on something stable, or if you get good at, you can rest your elbows on something, hold on to the lens and click. Something I got good at, and eliminated lengthy preparation and set up for the moon photography. I just take my camera, find comfortable resting place and shoot.

Moon Photography Equipment Summary
[1] Digital SLR Camera or Digital Point-and-Shoot Camera with at least 12x optical zoom
[2] Lenses with at least 75-300mm or 100-400mm, or more focal length [Canon, Nikon, Sigma]

[3] Tripod or other stable support




REFERENCES
[1] Moon Photography: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip
[2] A Bit of Knowledge: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip For SLR Digital Cameras
[3] How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: February 19, 2009

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions

Soon as the skies are clear and the moon is very clear, full moon, half moon or crescent moon, people around the world get their digital or conventional cameras to take pictures. However, they yet to find out at the time of developing that all you can see is just a bright round object on the black sky. This is in fact a good start. The fact that you took your camera and wanted to take a picture of the moon is an excellent first step. Now let see, what you can do better.

What Weather is the Best for Taking a Photo of the Moon?
It does not take a genius to figure out that you need clear skies in order to take pictures of the moon. However, don’t be disappointed when there are clouds, because sometimes the wind does a little help. In a matter of time, wind can move clouds out of the way, and there is the moon you want to snap a photograph of. It happened to me many times, and sometimes with clouds being on the way, the photo can be even more spectacular. But if there is no wind then you are in bad shape and you will have to wait for the next time.

When you are looking for taking pictures of the moon, it is a good idea to get yourself ready ahead. Check out the lunar cycle for the moon phases, and check out the weather forecast. Then you need to find out where on the sky the moon is going to be and when. Yes location is important, last thing you need is that you cannot see the moon because it is behind the buildings, and when it emerges out of them, the clouds show up – yes some times bad luck can follow us.

Let’s repeat then, you will need lunar cycle calendar, local weather forecast, location on the sky, location from the ground and the time. Don’t be surprised if you see sometimes moon during the day, as I was. I thought that moon was only for the nights.

Excellent resources to start: Kalendar 365 and Sky View Cafe
For weather you can always drop by The Weather Network or in the Google search type ‘weather your location’.

Read Part II: How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required

REFERENCES
[1] Moon Photography: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip
[2] A Bit of Knowledge: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip For SLR Digital Cameras
Document Release: 1; Document Last Modified: February 25, 2009