quick snap of the moon

Hi Folks

Here is a snap of the moon i took tonight.
just wondering if it should be possible to get it any sharper with the setup I have. Thanks



canon 300D
iso400
F10
sigma 70-300 mm lens @ 300mm
1/250 sec

Trev,

Firstly, fine image. You might be able to slightly tweak the contrast a fraction and mabey a little of sharpening, but that's about it really. You have it most of the way's there at this stage so I wouldn't expect any miracles from these two suggestions.

I found that the best way to get alot of detail on the Moon with the 300d was to have a setup whereby the entire image frame was filled with a portion of the Moon. Then, I would do a mosaic to combine the images into one single image of the Moon. This allowed for much greater detail to be captured. Below is an example of whereby I took an image of the Moon with my 300d and LX90 (FL=2000mm). 11 images were stitched together to create this . Now, if I were to proces this image again I might tweak things a little, but for this exercise, you can see the level of detail captured.

Hope this helps,

Thanks Michael

Next step is to hook up to a scope so.

Nice going Trev

Trevor,

You might also want to try a lower ISO - 100 will give much better results, less noise - sharper detail, and with the moon so bright it won't affect exposure times that much, also drop the F to 5.6 which you should be able to get with that lens (I have a similar Canon EF 70-300mm myself) which will reduce the exposure time down to about 1/125s or less. If your operating from a fixed tripod then this can make a difference, snap as many shots as you can, and pick the best, as atmospherics will dictate how sharp the detail on your final image will be.
just my 2c.

Thanks for that john.

Can I just ask, what benefits would a 1/125 second exposure give over 1/250.
Also I choose to shoot at F10 because I thought it may be a little more forgiving on the focusing...am I wrong in this thinking or is the aim to get as short an exposure as possible??

thanks