How can I photograph the full Moon through my telescope with a Nikon D5500?
Asked 6/2/2020
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I have a Nikon D5500 and an 8-inch telescope. When I attach the camera to the telescope, the Moon appears larger than the frame, so I can’t capture the full lunar disk in one shot.
Is it practical to take multiple photos and stitch them together later, or will uneven lighting make the result look unnatural? If there’s a better way to fit the full Moon in the frame, what should I look for?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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Your biggest challenge will be to aim at the different spots on the Moon accurately. This is because the Moon moves its own width roughly every two minutes. You'll need to use stitching software that can handle irregular intervals between each shot.
There should be no issue with different brightness levels, assuming a cloud free sky. If you take all of your shots within a few minutes when the Moon is more than about 20° above the horizon and use the same ISO,exposure time, and aperture for all of the shots there should be no noticeable difference in brightness from one shot to the next. After all, the Sun that is shining directly on the Moon is very stable in its luminance output.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
6y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—stitching multiple Moon images can work, and the lighting should stay consistent if you shoot all frames within a few minutes in clear skies using the same exposure settings. The bigger challenge is accurate framing, because the Moon moves about its own width in roughly two minutes, so you need to work quickly and use stitching software that can handle uneven overlaps.
A simpler option is to reduce the telescope’s effective focal length. On an APS-C Nikon like the D5500, the full Moon fits more comfortably at around 1500mm focal length; around 1800mm is very tight. If your telescope is longer than that, a focal reducer can widen the field of view enough to capture the full disk in one frame. These are telescope accessories that mount between the camera adapter and the scope, and are commonly available for long-focal-length designs such as Schmidt-Cassegrains.
So: stitching is possible, but if you’re close to fitting the Moon already, a focal reducer is the easier solution.
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