Skywatch Friday

Last night’s full moon…

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December 2nd!

I can’t believe it’s the second of December already! Where did the year go?  I definitely know I’m not ready to start writing “2010” as part of the date in barely a month’s time.  Why, I finally started remembering to write 09, instead of 08.  What about you?

The weather we’ve been getting during the break from the rain has been absolutely heavenly!  Beautiful sunsets, clear nights, and slightly chilly mornings.  And the sun still has quite a bit of warmth to it, which is great for reading in the barn.  We had a medium hard frost last night, so everything had a layer of white on it this morning.  Even the the water trough had a tiny layer of ice on it.   The full moon was absolutely gorgeous last night, and then I caught it this morning before it slipped behind the trees to the west.

Speaking of full moons, I heard on the weather report last night that we’re in for  a blue moon this month!  The second full moon is supposed to be on the 31st, so I hope it’s clear night!

Success at last!!!

I’ve taken my first shot of the moon that hasn’t been a misshapen blur with absolutely no detail at all!!  *cue high-pitched squealing*  Okay, I’m done now.

Anyway.  It was the day before the full moon (August 4th) and while creeping home through Corbett at the grand speed of 25mph with a full load of hay on the old truck, the nearly-full moon looked huge as it peeked over the tops of the trees on a bluff behind the grade/highschool.  Until just a couple of days ago, the moon had been the bane of my photographing life. I sighed, knowing that there was absolutely no way a picture from the truck would turn out.

When we got home I grabbed the camera and prepared for another disappointing batch of pictures.  I finally decided to try some of the “custom” settings.  I didn’t know how the pictures would turn out because I didn’t know that much about the manual settings and had never had good luck with them.

I set the camera on M (Manual) and played with the settings a little bit.  The aperture was set to 6.3 and the ISO 800.  I used the available dog food bag for a tripod and hoped for the best.  Dog food bag tripods would fit into the category of “You Know You’re A Redneck When…“, don’t you think?  Anyway, I was astounded by the results. The moon was actually in focus!  Dropping the ISO down to 400 turned the moon a lovely orangey-red color.

Computer research this morning revealed that instead of using the highest ISO on my camera, I should use 800 or 400 ISO and then there wouldn’t be so much blue and purple noise in my shots.

Aperture: 6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1000.  With the fast shutter speed you don’t have to have a tripod to insure that you get a clear picture, just a semi-steady hand should work just fine.  You’ll get a few out-of-focus ones but the majority will be in focus.
ISO: 1600.  I probably should have set it on 800, but that was before I found out that that smaller ISO makes a better quality picture.

This is by far my favorite shot.  It also helps to set the camera on Landscape as well.  It keeps it from focusing on whatever is in front of the  moon and instead brings them both into focus.

Isn’t this picture just love?

I took this one before the big breakthrough, but I still think it’s cool.

I chose digital photography as one of my electives for my sophomore year of highschool this year.  I can’t wait to see what I learn with it!