TIL my camera's 'auto' mode was ruining my moon shots

I kept getting blurry, washed out photos of the full moon. My friend in Austin said, 'You're letting the camera decide.' He showed me how to use manual settings. I set the ISO to 100 and a fast shutter speed. Now my pictures are sharp and clear. What other manual settings do you guys use for planets?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_grant342mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, planets are a whole different game! You need way more zoom, like a telescope. For bright planets like Jupiter, I keep the ISO low and use a fast shutter speed too, but the real trick is stacking. You take a video and use free software to combine the best frames. It cuts through all the blurry air wobble. A tracking mount helps a ton if you get serious, because they move fast across the sky. It's a deep rabbit hole, but so worth it when you see the bands of Jupiter.

patricialee2mo ago

Watched my buddy spend a whole night trying to get a single shot of Saturn. He was so mad about the blur until someone told him about stacking. He downloaded that free program, threw a two minute video clip at it, and the next day he showed me this picture where you could almost see the gap in the rings. He hasn't slept right since.

susan6492mo ago

Yeah, I've been that guy too, @phoenix_grant34.