Afocal settings for Moon pic with SLR

[prova]

now that i have my 8" reflector collimated i'd like to give Afocal photography a shot with my Nikon D50 SLR

appreciate any tips from anyone that's tried this, in particular i'd like to know what settings i should be using, no flash obviously?, lens (my 18-55 or 55-200) etc

cheers

[Ingo]

200 won't really cut it...use F6 ISO200, 1/400

Should work.

[iceman]

For afocal, use your 18-55 lens, most likely at the widest setting. Use a low power eyepiece to start with, preferrably one with a nice wide eye lens so you can get your camera lens in close.

If it's a bright phase of the moon, auto-focus will probably work though you may need to position the focus point over a bright part, wait for focus lock and then compose your shot.

Use Program mode to start with so you get a feel for the settings - see what the camera thinks it needs. If the exposure is too short for hand holding, bump up the ISO and use 1/400 or more, so you shouldn't get any shake from hand-holding.

Definitely flash off. The aperture won't make a huge amount of difference as there's really no foreground or background, but if stopping down helps your lens deliver a sharper image in the corners, and the moon is filling the corners as well, then stop it down a bit but you may need to compensate with a higher ISO to keep the shutter as short as possible.

Hope that helps!

[prova]

thanks guys, ill give it a SHOT tonight (excuse the pun) ...