Moon Shot

He most direct way to photograph the Moon is simply to position your camera so that it’s looking into the eyepiece of your telescope and fire away. This is known as afocal photography, and it works well for point-and-shoot cameras, those with non- removable lenses and LCD viewscreens to frame the scene.

Ordinary point-and-shoot cameras can take very satisfying Moon photos using the “afocal” method. While a specialized bracket that attaches the camera to the telescope is best, reasonable shots can be captured by simply holding the camera up to the telescope eyepiece.

To give this method a try, first aim your telescope at the Moon and bring the view into sharp focus with a medium-power eyepiece. Next, set your camera’s white balance to daylight (usually the little Sun symbol) and to infinity focus (or leave it in auto-focus if no such mode is available), and carefully aim into the eyepiece while looking at the viewscreen. Zoom in with your camera until the eyepiece field fills the screen. It’ll probably take a few tries before you manage to line up the camera with the eyepiece correctly. Once you do, take a couple of test shots and see what you get.

Chances are, your first photos will show a featureless white disc, instead of a richly detailed lunar portrait. That’s because the black sky surrounding the Moon can trick your camera into over- exposing the scene. The first thing to try is to increase the magnification of your telescope by changing the eyepiece or (better) zooming in with your camera so that the lunar disc occupies more of the field of view. The less blackness the camera sees, the less likely its metering system will be fooled.

Various camera settings can also help you tame the Moon’s brightness. First, make sure the ISO is set to its lowest level. If that doesn’t yield the correct exposure, check to see whether your cam- era has a manual mode. If it does, this is where it comes in handy. Switch the camera off automatic, throttle down the exposure, and try again. If you don’t have manual exposure, dig out the instruction booklet, and look for a feature called “exposure compensation.” This allows you to reduce the camera’s sensitivity so that the Moon isn’t blown out. Experimentation is the key, but luckily, today’s memory cards easily hold loads of test exposures.

After a few pictures, you’ll probably find that lining up the camera with the telescope is a tedious hit-and-miss affair. To make it easier, mount your camera on a tripod so that you can aim into the eyepiece more precisely. And if you really want to get serious about shooting the Moon afocally, invest in a specialized bracket to couple your camera directly to the telescope. Suitable units are available from most Canadian telescope dealers. An adapter bracket will en- sure the best, most consistent results with the least amount of fuss.