Astro Café
September 6, 2017
Photographing the Full Harvest Moonrise

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The Full Moon rising on September 11, 2011 as seen from St. Georges Crescent.


Photographing the Full Harvest Corn Moonrise

Wednesday, September 6, 2017
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Viewpoint across the road from
44 St Georges Crescent
Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/JjRkgVYBtgm

FREE Members only event.

Presented by RASC members Alister Ling and Luca Vanzella.

If you have always wanted to photograph the Full Moon rising above a scenic landscape but you aren’t sure how to do it – this Astro Café is for you! Veteran Full Moon shooters Alister Ling and Luca Vanzella will guide you through all of the steps necessary to get that perfect shot.

This Astro Café is designed for people that own a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera – we won’t be using any phone or point-and-shoot cameras. Some familiarity with your DSLR camera is beneficial but not absolutely required.

Please read the What to Bring and How to Prepare sections below.

20:10 sunset, 20:46 civil end
20:39 moonrise 98, 21:06 moon 3.3, 103

Full Moon shooters gathered at the August 17, 2016 Astro Café at St. Georges Crescent.


This tutorial will go rain or shine (see bottom of this post for details).
An update will be posted on this web page no later than 18:00 on Sep 6. It is your responsibility to check here.

Questions? Email astrocafe@edmontonrasc.com.

What to Bring

  • DSLR camera (no phones or point-and-shoots)
  • Lens
    • Zoom lens if you have one, e.g., 28-250mm or 70-300mm
    • If no zoom lens, then whatever lens you have
  • Sturdiest tripod you own (with the head for the camera)
  • Intervalometer, if you have one. If not, then a remote shutter release and a stopwatch or a smartphone with a timer app.
  • Mosquito repellent/pants/light jacket/light gloves
  • Binoculars if you have some (there will be a pair to share)

How to Prepare

(Note the following uses Canon terminology. Set your camera accordingly.)

  • Study your camera if you don’t already know it.
  • Charge camera battery (including spare if you have one)
  • Empty the memory card
  • Set lens to auto-focus
  • Set camera to Manual mode
  • Set shutter speed to 1/100
  • Set lens opening to f/6.3
  • Set ISO to 200
  • Set Quality to LARGE/HIGH QUALITY/JPG
    OPTIONAL: Choose RAW if you know what RAW is and if you are not doing bracketing.
  • Set camera to single-point focus mode
  • Set White Balance to Daylight
  • Set Auto Noise Reduction to OFF
  • Set Picture Style to Standard
  • Set Image Review to 2 sec
  • Set AUTO POWER OFF to off (or a long time)
  • Shutter Release – Do one of the following:
  • If you have an intervalometer:
    • set it to 5 sec interval (for timelapse purposes)
    • set it to 5 MIN interval (if you don’t want to do a timelapse)
  • If the camera can do it, set it to release the shutter every 5 sec (or 5 min per above)
  • If you have a remote shutter release, prepare your stopwatch or smartphone timer app to 5 MINUTE interval
  • If you don’t have either intervalometer or remote shutter release, then LEARN how to set the camera to delay the shutter 2 sec (but don’t set it just yet).


This tutorial will go rain or shine as follows:

Clear or Clear Enough Skies

  • If the skies are clear or clear enough we will meet at the viewpoint across the road from 44 St Georges Crescent.
    Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/JjRkgVYBtgm.

Cloudy Sky Backup

  • If the skies are cloudy we will still do the Café on-site at  St Georges Crescent anyway.
  • On-site will give everyone a chance try things in the field, even if the Moon is not visible.

Rain/Snow Backup

  • We will meet at Windsor Park Community League Hall: 11840 87 Ave
  • Bring your equipment.
  • We will do the tutorial indoors with the equipment.

An update will be posted on this web page no later than 18:00 on Sep 6. It is your responsibility to check here.

Image Processing Café

Wednesday, September 13, 2017
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
University of Alberta Observatory
CCIS Building, 5th Floor

https://goo.gl/maps/GBiyBVW5nez

Thanks to all that attended the Moonrise Café yesterday. We had 18 shooters participating. We will have an image processing Café as listed above. Please bring a laptop computer with all of your images loaded into a Working Folder, which contains copies of your original images.

We will be demonstrating processing techniques using the following software. You can download these programs and install them onto your computer or use your favorite programs.

For image processing and making composite images:

For timelapse movies: