Tonight Australia will be treated with a Supermoon. This is where the moon will be at its closest proximity to the planet and will look like a big boi.
In fact, it’s going to appear 30 per cent brighter and 14 per cent larger than when its farthest from the Earth.
It’s going to be pretty spectacular, and we know that plenty of you will be itching to capture it on camera. So we got an astophotographer to share their best tips.
Steven Morris is an award-winning, Adelaide-based astrophotographer with an Instagram account that will make you swoon.
Although the Supermoon does start tonight, it will reach its fullest phase at 2:53am AEDT on Wednesday morning. If you’re keen enough to get up to snap it, Steven’s tips will help.
- Using a tripod will dramatically improve the quality and sharpness of your moon photographs
- If you can’t achieve autofocus then use your live view screen, zoom in on the moon using the live view screen and adjust your focus
- Using focal lengths of 200mm or more can start to show some nice detail of the moon
- A quick exposure of around 1/800th or faster helps with countering the earths rotation and leaves you with a nice clear image as well as using a shutter release cable or the timer function on your camera
- Apertures of around F/8 will yield some nice sharp results
- Depending on the phase of the moon ISO may need to be increased
- If your using long focal length lenses just keep in mind that atmospheric turbulence can reduce the sharpness of your moon images. Wait for a moment of clear seeing where the atmosphere settles down briefly or take a few photographs throughout the night and access how the look for the sharpest image
Steven Morris also teaches astrophotography workshops for Nikon, which you can check out here.