My Moon Information and Pictures

Back to my Astronomy page

This page has my photos of the moon,

Maps for identification of features

Information about rotation of the moon etc

Information about photography

My photographs. These were usually taken with no tripod. Manual, approx: ISO 100, Aperture F10, 1/100 sec. In photoshop I applied haze removal and sometimes auto shake removal. Sometimes Adjust lighting. highlights etc. Each new set may have had different photoshop modifications. The features of the moon - craters, seas etc can be identified using the moon maps. Note: The maps have North at the top but he photos will vary in orientation: when I refer to East or West in describing moon features on my photos then I am caling North the top of MY photo - not NORTH as it is positioned in maps.

March 6th (18.30) Waxing moon.                                                                                                                           Undrexposed 0.7. In photoshop only darkened highlight.
The well-defined Mare is Mare Crisium with Mare Fecunditatis to its South West. The Langrenus crater is the bright crater in this Mare

The top left crater is Rheinhold and below that is the Lansberg crater. The large crater below is the Grassendi crater on the edge of Mare Humorum. North East of that is the Bullaldus crater in Mare Nubium. East South East is the bright Tycho crater, NW of which is Pitatus. The landing sites of Appollo 12 and 14 were East of the Lansberg crater .
To the West and South of Tycho are Wilhelm, Longmontanus and Clavius

March 14th 19.00 clear sky. Waxing moon. New Plan. To make is easier to compare my photos with maps with true North; Make a copy of the basic photo. Edit with photoshop. Then rotate the original photo so that true North as at the top (about 40 degrees clockwise). Use this version to make amplified phots for comparison with moon maps.

How to Photograph the Moon: The Best Camera Settings For Photographing The Moon - taken from 'Lightstalking'
In summary Set to Manual. Use longest lens. Set ISO to 100. Use F11 or F16. Shutter 1/60 or 1/125. Focus perhaps manually. Use tripod and timer. I often get good picture hand held.    
 
No preset or auto function of your camera will be able to properly meter the moon, so ideally you should consider shooting in full manual mode. At the very least, choose Aperture Priority mode.
General Settings

• Always shoot raw so you can get as many details from the moon and make adjustments to white balance when post processing. I have not done this but results ok.
• It is good to use manual focusing instead of autofocus. Zoom in one live view and focus to get sharp focus. I have used autofocus OK.
• Turn off image stabilization when the camera is on a tripod.
• If using a DSLR camera, make use of the mirror lock-up feature to avoid camera shake due to mirror slap. I have not done this.

ISO
Digital cameras should be set to 100 or lower, film shooters should shoot film of 100 ISO or slower to eliminate noise and grain. Some cameras will have the lowest setting of ISO 200. If you are using a very long telephoto lens, you will need to make the shutter speed faster comparatively to avoid capturing the movement of the moon across the sky. In that case, or if the sky conditions are not too good, you may have to slightly increase the iso.
Aperture
Because you're after crisp, clean shots, shooting at f/11 to f/16, depending on your lens, will be the best place to start. Research your lens' sweet spot to find the sharpest aperture. Using narrow aperture values will require increasing the iso during the waning and waxing phases of the moon, especially when the moon is less than a quarter. When conditions are bad, you can open up the aperture to about f/8 or f/5.6 but make sure that the images are acceptably sharp.
Shutter speed
The variables are many and include those mentioned earlier, such as the phase the moon is in, geographical location and desired shot, but on a clear night starting at about 1/60th to 1/125th should be a great starting point. Depending on the brightness and focal length as well, you will need to make adjustments to shutter speeds.
Attention: Grab your free cheat sheet for Moon photography! Click Here
What Is The Looney 11 Rule?
There is a “rule of thumb” that is easy to memorize and should get you close to a good exposure of the face of the moon – the “looney 11 rule.” This rule is a method of estimating correct exposures without a light meter. For daylight photography, there is a similar rule called the sunny 16 rule.
The looney 11 rule is a very simple guideline intended to give the photographer a baseline to start from when shooting the moon at night.
The Rule: For astronomical photos of the Moon's surface, set aperture to f/11 and shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO setting.
For example: f/11 at ISO 100 and 1/100th second shutter speed.
Another example: f/11 at ISO 200 and 1/200 second shutter speed.

My Photoshopping
I always start 'Enhancing' with Haze removal. Rarely autosharpen. Adjust lighting; sometimes just levels, sometimes highlights or contrast.

Rotation of the moon and calendars

From Explore physics website
The moon orbits the Earth once every 27.322 days. It also takes about the same time to rotate once on its axis*. So it appears to be keeping almost perfectly still. This is called synchronous rotation.

The moon's orbit takes about 27 days to go full circle (360 degrees). So it moves 12–13 degrees east every day, explaining why moonrise is about 50 minutes later each day.

Although the its orbit takes about 27 days the monthly cycle of the Moon's phases (eg from full moon to full moon) is 29.5 days. This is because as it moves around the Earth the Earth also moves around the Sun. The Moon must therefore travel a little farther in its path to make up for the added distance and complete its phase cycle.

A lunar calendar is based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (29.5 days – a ‘lunation’). Solar calendars are based on the solar year - the time taken to go once around the sun. Our ‘Gregorian’calendar is a lunisolar calendar, whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the solar year by adding a bit to each lunar month so that we have 12 months in a year. 

*A note for observers: The orbit and the rotation aren't perfectly matched. The moon travels around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. When it is closest, its rotation is slower than its journey through space, allowing observers to see an additional 8 degrees on the eastern side. When the moon is farthest, the rotation is faster, so an additional 8 degrees are visible on the western side.