Waxing Gibbous Moon 69 Percent 26Nov2009 (my best moon photo)

Newer Older

This image made Flickr Explore Nov 26, 2009 #315
Waxing Gibbous Moon 69 Percent 26Nov2009. Waxing Gibbous Moon 69 Percent 26Nov2009, as seen from Morro Bay, CA.
(my best moon photo)

NOTE LICENSE CHANGE: Effective 08 Sept. 2011, © All Rights Reserved, due to image being adopted by Getty Images. Please contact Getty Images to use this photo.
© 2009 Michael L. Baird

Photo by Michael "Mike" L. Baird, mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, flickr.bairdphotos.com; Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 600mm f/4.0 Lens with Circular Polarizer (to no expected effect) with Canon EF 2X II Extender Telephoto Accessory (for 1200mm times 1.3 crop-factor = 1560 effective mm, on heavy Gitzo GZGT5540LS tripod with Wimberley Gimbal Head II on leveling base.
Tech Note: Image Stabilizer off; Focus manual via Liveview 10X view on LCD. I also tried manually "zooming" through a narrow ranges of focus settings as a form of "auto-focus "bracketing" to get a crisp in-focus shot... it is amazing how sensitive to focus an object is like the moon, so very far away. When not doing a burst of frames and changing focus, I used the 2-second shutter delay mode in place of the remote shutter controller which I left home in the haste. Next time I will bring a second tripod and a bean bag for providing more camera/lens support at the end of the lens, as vibration definitely was a limitation on image quality obtained here.

Frank217, ingridtaylar, jkirkhart35, and 49 other people added this photo to their favorites.

View 9 more comments

  1. RyanKinnett 43 months ago | reply

    Nice crisp shot Mike. Feels like you can touch it; I want to stick a finger in Copernicus crater..

  2. byrne.images (out on assignment) 43 months ago | reply

    A beauty, Mike... Happy Holidays!

  3. r.AI (-) 43 months ago | reply

    this is great

  4. Bobby Siliato 43 months ago | reply

    Great shot! Congrats!

  5. 1Tanker 43 months ago | reply

    Outstanding lunar photo!! Luckily you have a telescope-of-a lens combo, to get this magnification. Bravo! :O

  6. Ted_Roger_Karson 43 months ago | reply

    Excellent capture and I appreciate the information. The image looks very natural, did you use any added sharpness or contrast ?

  7. mikebaird 43 months ago | reply

    Ted_Roger_Karson You asked "did you use any added sharpness or contrast ?"
    A: By definition in doing any conversion from RAW to .jpg a decision has to be made on the amount of sharpness and contrast to be applied. In this case I did not do anything exceptional, but if you click "more properties" you can see every parameter value resolved in Lightroom which I used here. I rarely do any local processing or Photoshopping. Thanks for the question. Mike

  8. kamundse 41 months ago | reply

    That is awesome! I should put my camera on my telescope sometime.

  9. OSINT 40 months ago | reply

    Thank you for supporting CC. What a great image! It's displayed on my site at Brevard and Florida Headlines a news page...it's my 'do something w/FREE-time page. :)

    I've provided full attribution and link to you. Once again, thank you for your support.

  10. CW Estes 39 months ago | reply

    We need you to participate in My Best Moon Shot.

  11. Proleshi 39 months ago | reply

    Awesome capture. Super good detail.

    Via items tagged with 'waxinggibbous' on Fluidr

  12. monon738 36 months ago | reply

    This is a very excellent capture of the moon. I love the crisp details of the craters. At 1200mm that moon had to been moving fast in your viewfinder.

  13. mikebaird 33 months ago | reply

    jumplittlelisa: : Great! I used this in a blog! Links to your photostream! litchfordparkblog.croslandliving.com/around-t own/survivin...
    Thanks for the very cool Creative Commons use at litchfordparkblog.croslandliving.com/around-town/survivin... and the use note at www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4137562706/comment7215762...

  14. lmAlive 31 months ago | reply

    Amazing. Truly amazing. Love the detail!

  15. Matteo Dunchi 27 months ago | reply

    probably one of the best moon shots in the whole flickr community. congrats!

  16. LUIS CANDILES ORUSCO 23 months ago | reply

    Wow wow wow...
    Amazing foto!!!!
    Congrats!!!!

  17. olavbryantsmith 8 months ago | reply

    Hi. We've started a new magazine called Empirical (empiricalmagazine.com ) and I am happy to say that we've chosen the photograph above for publication in our October issue. Thank you for making it available to us.

keyboard shortcuts: previous photo next photo L view in light box F favorite < scroll film strip left > scroll film strip right ? show all shortcuts