Re: [APML]: Moon looks Red

["Joseph O'Neil" <joneil@multiboard.com>]

Al Paglieri wrote:

> I took some shots of the Moon on August 8th & 9th from Starfest '97 in Mount
> Forest Ontario.
> Shot at prime focus with a 8" f10 SCT and Kodak Elite 400 film.
> In all the slides the Moon is red.  Can anyone tell me why?

Hi Al;
        The elite II slide films are very red sensitive, which is one of the factors 
that makes them nice for astro-photography (see my recent 50mm wide field shot I did 
at Starfest - the NA nebula jumps out nicely).

        On the nights you shot those pictures, there was a lot of haze in the air, 
both day and night.  Water vapour/haze tends to filter out light at the blue end of 
the spectrum, and with the increased red sensitivty of the film, this may have 
combined to give you a redish moon.

        Did you take any "ordinary" daylight shots on your slides?  I always do at the 
beginning of every slide film.   First of course is so tha the automatic cutters have 
a place to start the slides properly.  But secondly is if there is any problems witht 
he film - heat damage, improper processing, etc, it will show up int he daylight shots 
very quickly.

        For argument's sake in your case, if you had taken some photos around the 
campground and they all turned out reddish, then you would know there was a some 
physical problem with the film.

        any chance of scanning a slide in and posting it somewhere to see?  Right now 
it cost me $10 per slide for a scan, so I do it very rarely.  Someday I will have to 
make a trip down to Mark Kaye's house with a canned ham, bottle of rye and a whack of 
hypered film to exchange for a ton of slide scanning.  :)  Of course, I'll wait untill 
he has a quiet moment to do this - that should be about the year 2015, right Mark?  :)

later
joe

joneil@obs.empath.on.ca
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
Astro-photo, infra-red, large format, B&W
and a single picture of my psychotic cat.