Orion Nebula, Jupiter's moons, and the Pleiades on an early Winter morning

At around 5:00am ET on November 6, 2012 I was taking my new puppy out to piddle. When I looked up, I saw a brilliant clear sky with Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades just over the roof of my apartment complex. It was about 30 degrees out, but I figured since I was up I'd jump on the opportunity. I went back inside to get my Canon with 300mm lens to take my first night sky photos since September.

My biggest problem the last time I tried using the Canon was the inability to focus on the stars. Through trial and error, I know it's possible to get the focus right after shooting a picture, viewing it and zooming to see the result. Luckily, I had a 25% moon that allowed me to auto-focus at a good distance, so these steps were not required.

I snapped a few pictures at a lower ISO and longer exposure time, and noticed since the zoom was so tight, the stars would form trails much sooner than in a wider frame. I cranked the ISO up to 1600 and reduced the shutter time to just 3.2 seconds. This gave me almost round stars (rather than lines) and a clearer view of the nebula clouds.

Orion Nebula, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Orion Nebula, Jupiter, and the Pleiades, ISO 400, 10 sec

Pleiades, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Jupiter and 3 moons, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm

Crop of the Orion Nebula with HDR and filter on Instagram

Blue Moon (almost) over BGSU men's soccer game

I've been learning more about the Rebel XT, and trying my hand at some sports photography. The BGSU men's soccer team has been an excellent subject for my experiments with camera settings in changing light.

Night games start at 7pm when the sun is low and golden orange, creating long shadows of the bleachers across the field. It seems that each passing minute the light changes again and I have to check my results along the way. By 8pm the sun is below the trees and the stadium lights are on, providing just enough light for photos but with a much slower shutter (relatively slow, still up around 1/2000th of a second).

I'm resisting the urge to turn this blog into an "Eric experiments with cameras" blog, and trying to remain loyal to my initial topic.

With that in mind, here are some shots of the moon rising over Doyt Perry Stadium as seen from Cochrane Soccer Stadium on Wednesday, August 29.

Blue Moon 97% full on 8-29-2012, 300mm, 100% crop, tweaked in PS

The second full moon in any calendar month is known as a Blue Moon. The moon on Wednesday was only 97% full, and won't reach its peak until Friday, August 31. Actually, I just read that the whole naming tradition was founded on a mistake in the first place... oh well. 

Moon photo with Canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III

Using the Canon Digital Rebel XT that my mother-in-law is letting me borrow, I was able to snap some moon photos tonight that are definitely an improvement over my point-and-shoot camera.

Here's one of my best shots from the dozen or so attempts.

100% crop and sharpened in Photoshop

Borrowing a Canon 350D (Rebel XT) from my mother-in-law

Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera

More power! My mother-in-law is letting me borrow her Canon Rebel XT, which according to the manual I guess is the same thing as the Canon 350D. It's the second time I've played with a DSLR, but the first time I have had the chance to really dig in.

I'm also borrowing two Canon lenses, the EFS 18-55mm and EF 75-300mm. I still don't really know what f/stop means so I didn't list that in my description haha.

It's been overcast all day, but it looks like things are clearing up in time to see the waxing gibbous moon rising in the east.