Moon with Nikon D5000 and Stellarvue ED80

[StarLane]

With nothing to do the other night I thought I would shoot the moon with my D5000 which is only ever use for my real estate work as an elevated camera. I usually use my D700 for astro work (only lunar at the moment) but I figure that with the 1:1.5 sensor on the D5000 it'll give me a larger image scale than the D700 which is a full size sensor. The D5000 is usually dangling from an 8 metre fibre glass telescopic pole. If something goes wrong up there, it's only six hundred odd dollars and not two and a half grand like the D700.

Anyway, I am very impressed with the dynamic range of the D5000 with excellent highlight detail in particular. I had the Nikon Active D Lighting switched to auto so the camera just did it's thing. I have always been impressed with the way this little camera has performed for my real estate work. For the money, it must be one of the best bang for the buck cameras on the market.

I shot in RAW and converted to Tiff 16bit for the final work, then to a cropped Jpeg for IIS.

The scope is a Stellarvue NHNG ED 80 with a focal length of 560mm f7. The camera is a 12MP CMOS sensor Nikon D5000. Exposure was 1/125th sec at prime focus.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Nice one!
This set up would be great for lunar eclipses and the like!

[Kell]

What a lovely photo - I also have a Nikon D5000 and have just received the T ring and adapter for it.

I am having trouble getting the D5000 to work with the T Ring/Mount attached even in manual mode it comes up with "no lens attached" and wont work ie show a live view through the LCD screen or take a photo blind?

I am wondering how you got around this with your set up - I am shooting through a f1200 90mm Maksutov and would love to do the same sort of photography as yourself.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Nice shot

Great detail along the terminator, there

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by Kell

What a lovely photo - I also have a Nikon D5000 and have just received the T ring and adapter for it.

I am having trouble getting the D5000 to work with the T Ring/Mount attached even in manual mode it comes up with "no lens attached" and wont work ie show a live view through the LCD screen or take a photo blind?

I am wondering how you got around this with your set up - I am shooting through a f1200 90mm Maksutov and would love to do the same sort of photography as yourself.

Dang it, can't remember what it is called but there will be a setting in the menu to ignore lens. My KM Dynax 7D has it and as far as I know all DSLRs have some version of it to cope with older lenses that do not register.
I'll check what mine is called tonight and post it up so you know what to look for.