[Theme] Show us your best moon (and solar system) images

[Øivind Tøien]

Edit: Post your best lunar images of any kind in this thread.


Edit2, October 21, 2020: I have expanded the topic to also include other objects in our solar system, i. e. planets and the sun itself (provided it is the all dominating object of interest), as we are anyway seeing a few of these here. 

Moon with 300mm PF:
A few days ago while checking out my new 300mm f/4 PF i noticed a yellow moon rising above the horizon. As I did not have my tripod with me,  I had to rely on the VR. It was mounted with TC-14E and FT-1 on my Nikon 1 AW1. Not bad considering the 1/80 sec shutter speed and that the crop presented has an angle of view closer to a 2000mm on FX:
#1


NIKON 1 AW1, f/6.3 @ 420 mm, 1/80, ISO 160, VR Normal.




Atmospheric conditions were far from ideal with the moon so low on the horizon. I later got to my tripod and did some further captures with VR off. White balance has here been kept at daylight to show the color of the moon resulting from filtering though the atmosphere at an angle. (The full crop of the following closeups are available if image is opened in new tab)
#2


NIKON 1 AW1, f/6.3 @ 420 mm, 1/80, ISO 160, VR off.



However the moon surface is not yellow but gray. Here the colors have been corrected to match the colors of the NASA moon map.
#3


NIKON 1 AW1, f/6.3 @ 420 mm, 1/80 sec , ISO 160, VR off.



Atmospheric conditions were far from ideal during the above captures. A few days later a new opportunity appeared when it finally cleared up again.
#4




#5



I waited until the moon approached its max height above horizon. The first few tries that I made with my 5100 were far from successful. I then tried with the AW1 again, here with colors adjusted to the gray shades of the moon:
#6


NIKON 1 AW1, f/6.3 @ 420 mm, 1/160 sec., ISO 160, VR off



Somewhat later from a lower vantage point I made some new tries to figure out what was going on wiith the D5100 captures. Again problems, but then I noticed how the image moved because of atmospheric disturbance. I increased the ISO to 800, and with the shorter shutter speed, I finally got something useful.
#7


NIKON D5100, f/6.3 @ 420 mm, 1/640 sec., ISO 800, VR off.



I also had to try an IR capture with my D40x IR-720. This body's AF works surprisingly well with the 300 PF. Color shades that resulted are also surprisingly close to the visible range:
#8


 NIKON D40X IR-720, f/5.6 @ 420 mm, 1/80 sec., ISO 100, VR off. Captured 20 min. or so before #6.
 

[elsa hoffmann]

Thank you for sharing - great images. Many people find the moon over shot and boring - but I am still lusting for a good one myself. Every time someone posts a moon - I am reminded I dont have one yet!

[Jakov Minić]

Really wonderful stuff.
I too, don't have a moon shot yet!

[Anthony]

My moon shots are not great either, you inspire me to keep trying.

The AW1 is a very versatile camera.

[RobOK]

I love moon shots, keep posting with your experiments!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Aha, the thread has swayed towards lunar photography....

First, a true blue 'harvest' moon shot from my front porch (D2X, 1200 mm f/11 ED-IF Nikkor)

Next, a golden daytime moon and daisies with the same 1200 lens and the D3. I availed myself of a very low moon elevation in conjunction with some late-flowering Glebionis segetum daisies growing on a crested road verge so put up my tripod as low in the terrain in the possible to combine the two elements. I had some troubles with hot spots using this combination, but removing the NC filter that followed with the lens when I purchased it, neatly solved the issue. I think this capture of a bee visiting the flowers was from the first sequence and accordingly there is a hot spot, but not prominent enough to destroy the picture.

[armando_m]

Very nice

my best moon images have  also been  done with mirrorless cameras, nex5n and V1,
maybe one day I can borrow an exotic telephoto and there are favorable conditions to shoot the moon

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks for the comments all of you, and Bjørn in particular for contributions to the thread. One can have a lot of artistic freedom of expression by just changing the white balance of the image. For instance if AW1 is allowed to decide for itself, it will try to cancel out a blue background, making the moon very yellow (with tendency to blow the red channel), while a black background will result in a grey moon. Of course the photographer decides in post. I like the blue moon rendition, Bjørn. I hope others will contribute too. 

[Jørgen Ramskov]

That AW1 is quite impressive.

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Jørgen.

Based on hints from Bjørn above and since we got a good start, I have now renamed this thread to invite you all to post your best lunar images of any kind.

Bjørn, can we  move the thread to the themed section?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

No problem. Consider it done.

[Akira]

I took this one two and a half years ago when I was kind of bored with the moon at night, so I tried to capture it during the "blue hour".

[Akira]

Kind of similar concept.  Shot around the sunset.  With an added bonus. 

(This is a repost of the same image on another "show us" thread.)

[Øivind Tøien]

Nice timing, Akira!
Thanks for moving the thread, Bjørn.

Of course hardly anything beats a real telescope if one want to study the surface of the moon. Here a repost from the old forum, captured by aligning my 55mm f/3.5 micro to the eyepiece of a telescope during an astronomy party, on a rather wobbly tripod arrangement that I had to keep readjusting. I kept the inverted image projected through the telescope.

[Akira]

Øivind, thanks!  Actually, I noticed the plane when I viewd at 100% to check the blur!  I feel your image really carries a scientist's mind.