Blood Super Moon - Could it be better?

[Steve-0]

I took a lot of pictures of the "blood super moon" - aka the lunar exclipse in May 2021.

I was on the island of Saipan and had a great view of the event but I'm disappointed with the photos.

I was using my A6000 on  a tripod with a SEL55210 maxed out at 210 mm.  I tried a lot of different settings and this was probably the best one. Settings for this shot were: ƒ/6.3 1/3 210mm ISO400. 

 

Still, it never looked like the manual focus was perfect. I used the peaking focus and it seemed to be correct. Could this picture have been better or do I simply need a longer lens to get this sort of shot? 

[DonSmith]

Looking at your shutter speed of 1/3rd sec. leads me to believe that you had some vibration when tripping the shutter with your 210mm. My suggestion for future attempts would be to either use a cable release or use shutter-timer at 5 seconds for a lens that long. Also was there any wind that evening? All these factors can lead to slight blurring. I do a lot of night work and have experienced all of these issues...

[Steve-0]

Thanks Don...There was little or no wind but and I actually was using the remote shutter app. I guess my real question is if it's possible to get a nice sharp picture of the moon with manual focus and the 210mm lens. Anyone have a good example?

[CarolineJensen]

Looking at your shutter speed of 1/3rd sec. leads me to believe that you had some vibration when tripping the shutter with your 210mm. My suggestion for future attempts would be to either use a cable release or use shutter-timer at 5 seconds for a lens that long. Also was there any wind that evening? All these factors can lead to slight blurring. I do a lot of night work and have experienced all of these issues...

I'd love a tutorial on this. Is there a way to really lock down a long lens for long exposure shots? It seems wind is my nemesis! 

[tonygale]

In addition to what @DonSmith siad, the moon moves surprisingly quickly. I would boost the ISO a couple stops to get the shutter speed faster as well

[9vphotodesign]

Yes, the moon actually moves quite fast. I've used the good old "Focal Length vs Shutter Speed Rule" to capture moon photos in the past. Since you were at 210mm, the minimum shutter speed would be 1/320s (210 x 1.5 [APS-C crop factor] = 315 > round up to 320) to compensate for movement. If you keep it at Auto ISO, then the camera will compensate for exposure.

[TrekRover]

Thanks Don...There was little or no wind but and I actually was using the remote shutter app. I guess my real question is if it's possible to get a nice sharp picture of the moon with manual focus and the 210mm lens. Anyone have a good example?

It's possible even with no wind, there is still vibration from just standing near the tripod. I'm a heavy guy so I try to stay 10 feet away in addition to using the remote shutter app. You might be able to do manual focus, however you may need a star tracker, or pump up the ISO and increase the shutter speed the moon moves fast at a magnified focal length.