How to Photograph the Moon with a DSLR

Find out how to photograph the Moon with your DSLR camera and/or a small telescope and capture amazing views of the Moon and its features.

The Moon can also be a difficult subject to photograph. It is a bright subject compared to the rest of the nighttime sky. It is also a moving subject, moving just fast enough that it may be problematic. Its brightness changes depending on the time of the month.

The best areas of the Moon to photograph are along the terminator - the line separating lunar day and night. Along with this line, lunar features are most visible due to the low angle between the Moon and the Sun, which creates long shadows over the lunar surface.

There isn't any single correct set of exposure settings that will all the time expose the Moon appropriately. Its brightness is dependent upon a couple of things, primarily its phase, its place in the sky if the Moon is at perigee (closest to the Earth) or apogee (farthest from the Earth) and what precisely you want to capture in the photos (just the Moon, or the Moon with some Earthshine.)

Camera Settings to Photograph the Moon

Here is a table of exposure settings which assumes an aperture of f/8. The data is based on a few of my photos and from experience. The difference between each phase is not exactly one-stop; the scale gets skewed a bit as you reach the full Moon. These are just some settings for you to start experimenting with. You may need to adjust them to fit your camera, lens, and seeing conditions.

Blue moons, orange moons in crescent hung just above the horizon, and so on will all be dimmer than a white moon in the centre of the sky. Slightly longer exposures, maybe by a stop or two, will be required to compensate. On the other hand, the reverse tends to be true when exposing the full Moon. Shorter exposures up to a stop could also be required.

If your camera does not support manual mode, or you are not at ease in manual mode, you can still use auto exposures. Set the metering mode to "spot metering". That should help your camera with the correct exposure for the Moon. If your camera supports exposure compensation, you can tell the camera that the scene needs to be underexposed by around two stops, which should also help.

Photograph the Moon with a Telescope

You will need a T-mount adaptor to couple your DSLR to your telescope to photograph the Moon. These are fairly inexpensive and can usually be got for around £15. They are specific to certain brands of cameras, so if you have a Canon DSLR, you will need an adapter ring for Canon cameras. You will also need a barrel that will slide into your telescope focuser. These are generic and screw into the adaptor ring. You can add a neutral density or variable polarizer filter to the barrel like an eyepiece. Adding a filter also has the benefit of sealing the camera's insides from dust and moisture.

If you don't have a DSLR, you can use several other options, even for smartphones, which involve a bracket or adaptor to hold the camera up to an eyepiece.

Once your digital camera is set up and positioned to go, you need to do the same on your telescope. This includes polar alignment if you want to track the Moon for any period.

Now that everything is set up insert your DSLR into your telescope and tighten the restraining screws. It's also a good idea to wrap the camera strap around the guide scope in case the camera falls loose.

Once secured, set the camera's ISO to a low setting, say 100-200 and focus the camera as accurately as possible. I find it helpful to use a Hartmann mask and a high magnification to help focus.

The exposure setting will vary depending on your telescope, but as a place to begin, try 1/200 seconds. Take a test shot and look at the image. The Moon should be bright but not overexposed and not contain any pure white. If the shot is overexposed, decrease the exposure time. If it's not exposed enough, increase it.

When you have found the optimum exposure setting, you want to either use a remote shutter release or the digital camera self-timer. This is because when you release the shutter, you introduce tiny vibrations into the camera and telescope. These are magnified through the optics and introduce blur to the image. The remote shutter release or self-timer will allow you to take a picture without touching the camera.

Take quite a few photographs, as atmospherics can affect the quality of the images. The more you take, the better the chance of a great shot. Once you've gotten favourable photographs of the Moon, try increasing the exposure to 0.25 or 0.5 seconds to see if you can capture some Earthshine.

Photographing Earthshine

Earthshine is reflected earthlight visible on the Moon's night side. It is observable when the Moon is a thin crescent, one to five days before or after a New Moon. Twilight is the best time to capture this phenomenon, sometimes called 'the old Moon in the arms of the New Moon'.

With the right conditions, no particular exposure adjustments are needed. A moon with Earthshine is a beautiful addition to any twilight shot.

The Moon in the Landscape

The Moon can be part of the landscape or a light source to light up the surroundings at night. With a full Moon and average exposure time, you can make a nighttime scene look like daylight - that is a great way to create and affect a photograph. If you decide to include the Moon in the landscape, it is tricky to balance the exposure. To get around this, shoot at twilight on a night when the Moon is very thin or when the Moon is low in the sky. This will help to balance the exposure.

View my Lunar Photography photo gallery!