Moon Over New York City

May 4, 2012 Supermoon over the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge

Last night I went scoping out locations to shot tonight's supermoon. As recommended below, it is best to use a tripod and a telephoto lens. I did not use either. 

This exposure was 2 seconds at f4, ISO 200. I braced the camera on a guard rail and used the time release to trigger the exposure. Of course, this blows out the moon, so I merged the moon details in Photoshop. The correct exposure for the moon that I used for the detail was f5.6 at 1/125 of a second at ISO 200.

This was shot with a Nikon D50 with an 18-55mm zoom - a stronger zoom would have made the moon look larger. The moon was also a little too high in the sky - the closer to the horizon, the larger it looks.

Nikon D7000 Black Digital SLR Camera Kit

How To Photograph the Supermoon

Supermoon over New York City by bg2b

Tonight and tomorrow night should be excellent opportunities to photograph the moon. Tonight in New York City, moonrise is at 6:30pm and tomorrow is a full moon with moonrise at 7:45pm.

According to TZPlanet, to get a good picture of the moon, use a tripod and a telephoto lens. A good starting guess at the aperture and shutter speed would be f11 at 1/125-1/250 at ISO 100.

Hopefully the weather cooperates.

For more tips on phoographing the moon, check out the discussion on 365Project

Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 Telephoto Zoom Lens - $2,299