Moon Photography

Lunar photography can be both simple and complicated. Simple because the Moon is basically an object like any other object and so with focus and exposure dialing you can basically capture our Earth's faithful companion in a simple way. However, it does get harder to capture him technically correct, and usually more aesthetically pleasing. What is even more difficult is to photograph him contrastingly and with many details. Here we go into a little more detail about what the options are in this regard. There is indeed a difference between an amateurishly shot lunar image and one captured by professional means and procedures. We will explain what to look out for and what your options are.

What are the main problems in Moon photography?

Among the most common mistakes in lunar photography are insufficient focusing and incorrect exposure. In many landscape photographs, you often see blurry, overexposed, white spots that are then supposed to represent the Moon. Not pretty to look at. Especially when you know that it can be done completely differently. Of course that it is then somewhat more difficult.

Is the Moon at "infinity"?

Did you know that the Moon sits at an average distance of let's say 400,000 kilometers from Earth? So even light racing through space at a speed of roughly 300,000 km/s takes more than one second to reach Earth. Although the Moon is obviously so many times denser than any other star, for focusing on your camera you may also assume that photographically the Moon is at "infinity."
The best way to focus is to zoom in on the object as much as possible, then focus and hold this focus when you frame the final image. Some cameras also allow digital zooming. Take advantage of that if you have this capability. Just keep in mind that some lenses may change their focus point a bit as you zoom in or out. But usually this is not the case. Take some test shots that you then inspect thoroughly if you want to be 100% sure of your focus.

Is the moon a colored object?

It will surprise many people when we say that the Moon is not really a colorless object. Because the lunar soil is made up of various types of rocks, minerals, ... this means it will reflect sunlight back to Earth in different wavelengths. This is exactly what we call color. However: these color differences in the various zones of the Moon's surface are very subtle and cannot be "just shown" in a typical Moon photo. Hence, many people think that our Moon is a black and white object.

Anyway, the reflected sunlight from the Moon will still have to pass through our Earth atmosphere all the time. There it is possible that some of these light rays will be absorbed and eventually only part of the sunlight, which is normally yellow-white, will pass through to the observer/photographer. You can see this very nicely when the Moon rises: it goes from orange-brown to light orange to finally change to yellow and finally white when it is high in the celestial firmament.

Conclusion: the Moon we photograph can/will therefore contain color(s). On the one hand due to the composition of its soil and on the other hand due to the absorption of reflected sunlight by our Earth's atmosphere.

Types of Moon Photography

In my opinion, you can divide Moon photography into the following classes:

Ordinary landscape photos with full moon in view

Sommigen noemen dit “esthetische astrofotografie”. Hiervoor gebruik je een fototoestel met een breedhoeklens. Je kunt dan het landschap mooi kadreren en het Maantje er in passen. Moeilijkheid hier is meestal dat de Maan véél te helder is in vergelijking met het landschap. Hier kan het zijn dat je 2 opnames zal moeten maken: eentje met het landschap goed belicht en ééntje met de Maan goed belicht. Deze worden dan met behulp van software samengebracht tot één nieuwe composietfoto. Sommige camera’s laten toe om zogeheten HDR (High Dynamic Range) foto’s te maken: de camera zal dan zelf één onderbelichte foto, één correct belichte en één overbelichte foto nemen en ze samenbrengen tot één mooie foto. Aardig meegenomen deze mogelijkheid natuurlijk. Wanneer je een maansikkel ziet (het kan dus bijvoorbeeld Eerste Kwartier of Laatste Kwartier zijn) dan is de sport om ook het niet verlichte deel van de Maan (het zogeheten “asgrauw schijnsel“) ook mooi in beeld te hebben (dat gedeelte zal er dan wat grijzig uitzien), liefst ook nog met wat enige vertekening in dat gedeelte van de Maan. Als je dat allemaal ziet, dan weet je dat je goed bezig bent. Zie het tweede voorbeeld hieronder.

Photos with isolated, more detailed Moon

These are photos that you shoot with at least a telephoto lens and where the Moon is somewhat isolated from the background. With sufficiently long exposures or lighter telephoto lenses, you can make sure that in such photos there are still stars in the background. Aesthetically, this is of course nice in lunar photography. It adds value to the photo. The problem you have with these photos is that at higher magnifications you will notice motion blur with the Moon. This is because you need to know and be aware that the Moon is really moving around the Earth at quite a pace. It is also constantly moving relative to the stars behind it. The more you magnify, the less light you receive and the faster shutter speeds you will have to use to obtain a nicely exposed image. However, the slower the shutter speeds, the more motion blur will occur. Is there nothing you can do about it? Yes, there is. I already see two possibilities: 1) choose a higher ISO value so that you can use faster shutter speeds and keep the blur under control or 2) by using an astronomical mount (also called "tracking mount"). This is a kind of tripod where the head rotates with the speed of the stars and/or Moon. On that tripod you place your photo/lens combination. It then rotates at the same speed as the stars and/or Moon. In this way, you can already avoid motion blur due to the Moon's own motion (and the motion of the Earth, namely once every 24 hours).

Het is altijd leuk om wat context te hebben bij een volledige Maanbeeld. Wat te denken van mooie wolkenformaties er rond? Deze opnames werden gemaakt op 4 januari 2026 met een 500 mm telelens.

Click on any of the photos below to launch the photo carousel....

High resolution photography of the Moon

This is the most difficult discipline of lunar photography. For this, you really need a real stargazer and accompanying mount. Because of the very high magnifications with a stargazer (also called "telescope"), you can then detail smaller parts of the Moon's surface. This does raise a couple of problems: 1) the mount may not be sturdy enough so you can get vibrations of the lunar image and 2) because the Earth's atmosphere is constantly in motion due to temperature differences in the different layers of our atmosphere (we call that "turbulence"), the formed lunar image in your telescope will also teeter (not stand still). 't Yes, then it does become difficult to make very sharp, detailed images of the Moon's surface. Of course, there is nothing you can do about this turbulence yourself (unless you remove all sources of heat here on Earth - never go shooting close to a house with a chimney, for example). You can also try to enlarge the Moon image a little less (which will reduce the turbulence a little) or... try again at another time. So here you really depend on the whims of nature. By the way: if there is a lot of turbulence, astronomers will say there is bad "seeing". 't is just a know of course 😉 .

When taking detailed pictures of the Moon, the image can be recorded by either attaching a camera to the eyepiece of the stargazer or a video camera (usually a webcam). The advantage of working with a webcam is that you make an entire movie of thousands of lunar images. Once you have made the film, you can extract the best frames and statistically edit them to obtain a nice, detailed composite image of the Moon. There is specialized software for this. If you want to know more about this, contact one of the public observatories. They will be happy to help you. Other amateur astronomers can best and quickly teach you the tricks of this type of lunar photography.

Special moon photography

For example, you can capture the Moon in color, photograph during a Lunar eclipse, even during a solar eclipse you can/will capture the Moon. To discuss all these possibilities here would lead us a bit too far. At the time (in 2005 that was) I wrote a booklet on "Fun Astrophotography Projects" (in AstroLAB's Educational Series, Volume 4). The publication here still can be downloaded. There are a number of such moon-related photography projects in there. For example, how to take a real color photograph of the Moon's surface. A result of that time is shown below. It was created in 2005 by taking 97 basic images with a stargazer with a 175 mm lens. All those frames were then combined into this one result. Today, with the better sensors in today's cameras, the image obtained would be even finer.

Wikipedia information on:
- Seeing(NL - FR - EN)
- Telescope(NL - FR - EN)

People's observatories / Associations:
- Overview of observatories: consult our Map of Top.vlaanderen : search through the legend on the category "Universe - Space"
- Flemish People's Observatories (Belgium)
- Public Observatories (The Netherlands)
- Société Astronomique de France (SAF, France): website
- Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde (VVS, Belgium): website
- Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer- en Sterrenkunde (KNVWS, The Netherlands): website

Software to obtain razor-sharp moon images via webcam:
- Registax