Photograph the Moon – from phone to telephoto
The Moon is one of the easiest subjects in the night sky – and one of the hardest to get right on a phone. It is a sunlit landscape against a black background, and that fools the camera’s automatic settings.
Why does the Moon turn into a white blob?
The camera meters the whole frame. Almost everything is dark sky, so it increases the exposure – and the small, brightly sunlit Moon ends up overexposed. The fix is to force a shorter exposure.
With a phone
- Turn off night mode. It stacks long exposures and makes the Moon even brighter.
- Tap the Moon to focus, then pull the exposure down (the sun/slider next to the focus box) until you see surface detail – often −1 to −2 stops.
- Use the optical zoom (2×, 3× or 5× if your phone has a telephoto lens). Digital zoom only enlarges pixels.
- Brace the phone against something, or use a small tripod and the self-timer so the shot doesn’t shake.
- If you have a pro mode: ISO 50–100 and a shutter speed around 1/250–1/1000 s.
With a mirrorless or DSLR camera
- Focal length: 200 mm gives a small but sharp Moon, 400–600 mm fills much more of the frame.
- Tripod and a remote or the 2-second timer. Turn off image stabilisation when the camera is on a tripod.
- Starting point: f/8, ISO 100 and 1/250 s for a half or full moon. The old “Looney 11” rule says f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/ISO at full moon.
- Focus manually in live view, zoomed in on the shadow line.
- Shoot RAW so you can recover detail afterwards.
The half moon beats the full moon
At full moon the Sun is directly behind us and the surface looks flat – no shadows. Around first and last quarter the light rakes across the shadow line, and craters and mountains cast long shadows. That’s when the Moon looks most three-dimensional. See “The craters best seen right now” on the front page.
The Moon with a landscape
A large orange Moon over a skyline needs the Moon to be low – check the moonrise time on the front page. Shoot in the blue hour after sunset, when the sky and foreground still have light and the exposure difference to the Moon is small. Use a long focal length and stand far from the foreground so the Moon looks large next to it.
Mind the air
Turbulence in the air (seeing) blurs the image, especially when the Moon is low. If it shimmers, wait until the Moon has risen higher, or take a burst and keep the sharpest frame. Cold, clear nights after a rain shower are often best.