Barking at the Moon

As Monty Python would say, "Now its time for something completely different!"

My 7 yr old daughter has a Christmas Break project for school that she of course is asking what to do. I suggested we could take pictures of the moon as it changes shape over the couple of weeks and she could do a presentation on why that happens. She liked the idea, so I went out a couple of nights ago to see what kind of picture I could get with my current gear.

I set up the tripod and my 40D mounted on a Sigma 50-500 and a lens doubler, both not high end options, but they are adequate for what I typically use them for. I sighted in the moon and then turned on the Live View function of the 40D to make the minor focal adjustment.

This was the result. I was pretty happy with what I could do with this gear, and even a bit surprised with the detail considering the low quality doubler I am using.

One of the coolest things we noticed was when I zoomed in on the Live View to 10x (digital zoom on the preview to help with focusing), you could actually see the moon moving across the frame. The kids were really enthralled at being able to see that movement.