Photographing the moon can be tricky. Last year I had a go at it and it was a complete disaster with the moon looking like a big bright blurry mass in the sky. After a bit of trial and error I discovered how to take nice shots of the moon. Please see the two examples to the right.

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The right lens

The first thing you need is a powerful zoom lens. The moon may look big in the night sky but when your camera takes a photo of it, the moon will only fill a tiny portion of the photo. On a 50mm lens the moon with be nothing more than a dot in your picture. The lens I used in the photos opposite were taken on a Canon 100-400mm lens which was a lot better but to be honest an even longer zoom would have been better.

Keep it steady

The next thing you 100% need is a tripod. Keeping the camera still is essential for getting a sharp image, and if your using a long zoom lens camera shake will be an issue as it's the longer the zoom the more camera shake affects the image. The tripod will hold the lens still and allow you to take a sharp image. Also you will need to use either the cameras timer function or a shutter release cable to trigger the camera shutter... otherwise you can jolt the camera while taking the photo and get blurred results.

Aperture

What f-number/aperture should you use? The first thing that comes to mind is a low f-number i.e. f4.0 or lower to take in more light. This is where I went wrong - the moon is actually very bright in the sky and using a low f-number can completely blow out the moon and make it look more like the sun. The ideal f-number would be somewhere between f11 and f16.

Shutter speed

For Shutter speed again you would assume a slow speed but again this is the opposite. Since the moon is bright you don't need as much time to capture the light it gives off. Also the moon actually moves quite fast along the night sky - if you have a 400mm lens or longer you can actually see the moon moving slowly across the viewfinder. If we used a slow shutter speed then the actual movement of the moon could cause us to lose detail. This is why I would recommend a speed of around 1/125 - 1/250.

ISO speed I would have around 200-400 and then just experiment with different combinations of ISO, aperture and shutter speed with the guidelines above until you get a nice exposure of the moon. You may need to also experiment if the moon is showing different amounts depending on the time of the month.

Cropping

Once you have your perfect shot load it onto your computer. Even on a 400mm lens the moon can still take up a relatively small area of your photo. If you got your settings spot on and managed to get a very sharp photo of the moon then you can crop your image and even zoom in a little bit so the moon itself fits better in the finished framing of your photo.

Conclusion

Yes, it's true, lunar energy represents a source of fabulous powers! Whether we want it to or not, the Moon exerts a considerable influence over our surroundings, over ourselves and over the major events in our lives.

Indeed, whoever we are, it is quite impossible to dissociate the Moon from our everyday lives. Certain categories of professions (psychic like Maria Duval, clairvoyant, historian, farmer, doctor, writer, painter, astrologist, etc) no doubt attach much greater importance to it than the ordinary run of human beings.

But which of us can claim never to have tried to penetrate the secrets and mysteries of the Moon, even if only superficially? Since time immemorial, human beings have tried to get it to know and use the powers of the Moon.

Why? Because it is obvious that the Moon has a powerful influence over our behaviour: more than other planets. It guides our actions, has an impact on our likes, our intuitions, our feelings, and because of this perceptibly affects the development of our lives. For example, it has been recorded that traffic accident rate is higher historically during the full Moon period.

There are plenty of other examples demonstrating that influence objectively: women's menstrual cycles, the high birth rate when the Moon is full, the growth of plants and vegetation, the movement of the tides, variations in climate and others.

But it does not stop here. Modern science is discovering new effects of lunar cycle on everything that lives on Earth every day. Finding answers to all the complex questions raised by this astral body is no small matter.

For example, why do certain tribes in Madagascar make mothers who are ready to give birth shield themselves fro the new Moon by hiding away at the back of the their homes? Why is it that the blue 메리트카지노 butterflies of Latin America are the dullest brown, and only due to the minuscule scales covering their wings which acts as a prism do they reflect the blue radiation emitted by the Moon? Why do Australian koalas eat almost twice as many eucalyptus leaves immediately after the full Moon? And why has it been discovered that lunar attraction causes bamboos in Southeast Asia to grow 50 centimetres taller a day?

Indeed we could extend this list of "whys" indefinitely. Lunar energy is really a mysterious force ever since the past till now. It is a source of energy psychics and spiritualists wants to tap on as it is such a force that can help them in their rites. So never just appreciate the beauty of the full Moon again but understand its awesome influence it has on us.