Moon Challenge!
Shoot the Moon!
This will be our first astrphotography challenge.
The moon will be rising around around dinner time and will be up for most of the night. See if you can take a picture of the moon from your backyard. For the moon shot with your camera, you can try to use an auto setting to start. Go ahead and try different settings to see what works well. Also try to follow the instructions that I made for your camera. Please e-mail me with any questions you have.
What to include?
Make sure to take at least one photograph that has the moon centered, fully visible, and with good proportions so that you can see all of the moon with a good amount of detail. But the creative part of astrophotography is where a lot of fun happens. Do you want to take a picture that looks like your friend is holding the moon? Do you want to see it shining through the trees? Above your house?
Try and take pictures of the moon several times a week for a month or more. We can combine your pictures together so that we can see the moon changing phases in our own pictures!
How to Plan?
Where in the world is the moon anyway? Well, for one, it's not in the world, it's orbiting the world!
One way to find where the moon will be, so that you know when you can take out your camera and get a picture is by using software that shows you when the moon will rise, and where to look for it. If you have access to a smart phone, please install mobile stellarium. If the stellarium app is not an option for your device, there is also a web page based version that should be able to work on just about any device.
https://stellarium-labs.com/stellarium-mobile-plus/
Once your start up the app, find the "Time" setting. You can slide the time setting and watch the moon move across the sky. If you can't find the moon, then type "Moon" into the search box. Play with the time setting to see the best time to take a photo of the moon. It is rising around dinnertime right now, but in the weeks and months ahead that will change. If you have the mobile version, then you can hold up your device to see where to look for the moon in the real world.
What to do with the photos?
Were you able to take some photos of the Moon? If yes, then congratulations! The next step is to share them with the club. If you don't already have an account on telescopius, and your parent would like you to get one, then please try and signup for one here: https://telescopius.com/ It's free to use and will be a great way to share your photos. Once you get the account, please go ahead and add your moon photo. Once you upload your first photo, you can add all of your best moon photos to that one as different versions.
See how many of these tasks you can accomplish! You can do as much or as little as you like, it's your hobby after all, and I will help you with any questions you have through e-mail: jamie.amendolagine@gmail.com And of course when we are together again at the next meeting (which is Monday Oct 30th by the way). I also want to setup our first real astrophotography adventure where we can take photos together, stay tuned for the time and place!
Good luck, and we will meet again next week to see how things went.
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