Almost super moon

The night before the “Super Moon” of 2013 I practiced taking shots of an almost full moon and a visit of the International Space Station.

Here are some tips to taking shots of the moon.

1. Get the longest zoom lens you can get your hands on. You want to get as close as possible to see as much detail as possible, but if you don’t have a decent zoom find a great composition.

2. Use a tripod, use a tripod and if you are still not getting my point use a tripod. Remember the moon varies from around 356,400 km to 406,700 km away from the Earth; on June 23, 2013 the moon will be 356,991 km from the Earth. The slightest movement will intensify, which brings me to the next tip…

3. Use a shutter release cable to apply less camera shack, if you do not have a shutter release cord use your cameras shutter timer. This way you won’t move the camera when you press the shutter release, believe it or not you are moving the camera.

4. What exposure should you use? I don’t like an ISO over 1200 because you get too much grain and noise in your photo. Most people tell you to leave your shutter open for a long exposure but I prefer not to with a full moon shot. The moon is too bight for me and moves too fast in the night sky, every time the moon moves your image won’t be as sharp. Here are the settings I used for the photo below: 1/800 sec;   f/8;   ISO 400:

Love the colors on the moon this night

5. Get out there and practice, nothing will get you better photos than to practice. This is why I went out the night before the “Super Moon” to make sure I was prepared for tomorrow’s moon.

Enjoy the moon and let me know how your photos came out, below is a 20 second exposure of the International Space Station flying across the night sky.

International space station