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

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Flowering Joshua Tree and American Desert Moon.

(D3X, 200/2 AFS)

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Another afternoon moon, this time at 60 deg N in November, thus the daylight period dwindles fast into almost nothing.

My neighbourhood, by the way. The nearby lake is not yet frozen over so generates a lot of fog wisps as the sun sets. The landscape is very typical 'Inland South-Eastern Norway' in which endless conifer forests prevail.

[John Geerts]

These are beauties Bjørn and very nice contradictions.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Another late autumn moon. Apparently I had more in storage in the archives than expected...

[Anirban Halder]

These are beauties Bjørn and very nice contradictions.

+1.
They are very creative, imaginative and colourful.

[Jakov Minić]

I cannot say it loud enough: Bjørn is an inspiration to me!

[jeoprix]

Another afternoon moon, this time at 60 deg N in November, thus the daylight period dwindles fast into almost nothing.

My neighbourhood, by the way. The nearby lake is not yet frozen over so generates a lot of fog wisps as the sun sets. The landscape is very typical 'Inland South-Eastern Norway' in which endless conifer forests prevail.

Great capture, Sir Bjørn! Awesome image and colors!

[BW]

The moon has always fascinated me, and on clear nights (very rare) the full moon makes it impossible to get a good nights sleep. So instead of swirling around in the bed sheets, one might as well get out to capture the moon. Bjørn show some very great pictures her, but her is my take. Stacking together a 600 mm and 2x converter on a m4/3 sensor makes the moon suddenly seem reachable. Wind and atmospheric conditions makes its best to ruin the shoot

[Jakov Minić]

Børgeeeee 

[Erik Lund]

Nicely framed Børge!

[Øivind Tøien]

Very nice use of silhouette of distant objects, Børge.
Bjørn's two excellent captures also show how one with the long distance does not need to use compositing to achieve adequate focus on both the foreground and the moon. I like the movement in the blades of the windmills, it adds to the atmosphere.

[BW]

To avoid a composite in the camera or PP one have to pay close attention to the distance between forground an d background. DOF and shutterspeed also have to match perfectly. When using a very narrow angle of view, objects in the appear to race across the sky. That will force you to compose the picture with the object outside the frame, coming in to the frame. Especially when using some form of exposure delay, which is almost required using a telephoto lens. A composite is a much easier path to follow. To mimic the scene as it appear for the viewer a composite might be better. As with your tent and moon picture Øyvind, a composite would have renderd the scene much more authentic. But as a single frame your picture bring me good memories of the great outdoors.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

It's a world of difference shooting the moon (or the sun) with say a  1200  mm instead of a 300 mm lens (my two last contributions both were with a 300 mm). With a really long focal length, the object you are trying to capture races through the frame in a split second. Thus not only do you have to decide the composition slightly ahead, the longest exposure time you can use also is severely restricted due to angular movement. This is a situation in which a strongly damped fluid head on your tripod is of invaluable assistance.

[Øivind Tøien]

This brings memories from an astronomy party when I tried to center a tripod mounted body with 55mm micro to the eyepiece of a telescope that did not have a solid lockable support nor any tracking (images earlier in this thread). Also the tripod was too low so part of the alignment was to adjust the legs at a very narrow angle. The alignment process took some time and when finished the moon or Jupiter was already way out of the frame. Then the challenge of aiming telescope with subject out of the frame by the right amount, realign tripod etc. I do not know how many times I had to repeat the process. My usual stubbornness helped to get a half decent result.

Yes my 300PF with 1.4x on the AW1 (angle of view as an 1134mm on FX) can be somewhat challenging; the BH-40 head is not the worlds smoothest at that magnification and I also see some vertical shift when tightening it up.

For your capture Børge you also had the challenge of timing the vertical alignment of the moon to just the right moment; well done!

[BW]

Hehe... I have tried some ad hoc solutions as you describe Øyvind, involving a couple of tripods and trying guesstimate the position of object in the sky. It has been so frustrating that anyone trying to comunicate with me during the process had to endure verbal abuse. As you mention Bjørn, the importance of tripod and the heads construction cannot be underestimated under such conditions. Even after many years, I still havent learned that lesson