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Re: [APML] moon week



I always get bummed out when moon week hits, and don't really bother going out then.  How much does the moon affect astrophotography, say there's a crescent or half moon and you're shooting somewhere across the sky?  I assume, since most of the stars are washed out that the photography is also bad...  Is it the same as light pollution?  Can it be filtered?
 
Just dreaming, I guess.
 
The moon is less of a hinderance than you might think.  I have shot 30 minute deep red filtered (Wratten #92, very similar to a Lumicon H-Alpha filter) Tech Pan exposures through my Schmidt camera with a six day old moon nearby in the same area of the sky.  They turned out great.  In fact, some of them are in my book, Wide-Field Astrophotography.  See the image of IC 4628 on page 164.
 
Also, a thin crescent moon in the sky isn't as bright as we suspect.  If you are at a dark site and can see the Milky Way, the moon isn't tearning up up that bad.  And if you are using long focal lengths, the effect of the moon is even further reduced.
 
But I also have another suggestion... instead of avoiding the sky completely during "moon week", why not shift gears and make the moon a target?  Lunar photography is something that has been seriously lacking in the amateur community for several decades now.  When I first started astronomy way too many decades ago, the moon was big deal.  To me, it still is.  After all, it is the only other world in the sky that we can see and photograph in very high detail with modest amateur equipment.  The variety of interesting sights and geology along the lunar terminator is a whole different area of astrophotography that is a specialty unto itself.  I have been using a simple digital camera and a 27-year old C-8 to take better lunar shots from my driveway than I ever accomplished with film and bigger telescopes in the past.
 
If the sky is clear, there is photo opportunity no matter what the phase of the moon.
 
Robert Reeves                      reeves10@swbell.net
520 Rittiman Rd.                   www.robertreeves.com
San Antonio, Texas 78209    210-828-9036
USA                                     29.484  98.440  200 meters