On a spur-of-the-moment decision, I went outside to photograph the moon a few weeks ago. Alas the low temperature of the air prevented me from taking as many pictures as I would have liked.

The 10x optical zoom on my FujiFilm s6000FD came in handy, though, revealing many of the moon’s surface features. At first I thought it was even capable of beholding Mars, but the zoom magnification power proved too small. In order to photograph the small red dot, the camera had to be slightly out of focus. At least I was able to capture the dot of Mars. (I’ll take what I can get.)

A few things I learned about night astronomical photography:

• Get a tripod. Use it! This is very important.
• Buy a zoom lens if you want planetary detail
• Low ISO speed is actually preferable for a Full Moon

Amazing what one can find in the tiny details of nature.
Enjoy.

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Photos from this trip are in the Byteful Gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery can be used as desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440) just as the fullscreen & widescreen wallpapers are.