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Snaproll
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/20/04
Posts: 3500
Loc: Wisconsin
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My wife and I are going to try something new tonight. Those of you that have an interest in birding might want to try this.
The majority of birds migrate at night. If you're watching a full moon around migration time, you'll see a bird zip in front of it every now and then. The moon of course is about 1/2 degree but the number of migrating birds is huge, so every now and then something zips past. In the past we've used her Lightbridge to watch, but tonight, if it's clear, we'll see if we can photograph this.
We have an outreach star party coming up this weekend so I pulled the C14 from the observatory and mounted up her Canon 600mm f/4 on the CGE. I have the XTi on a long shutter cord. We'll be able to spot either using the Lightbridge or just through the regular viewfinder. I'm not sure that we'll be able to be fast enough to hit the release and catch anything, but it might be fun trying. 
Has anybody else lunar/bird migration imaging?
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-Jim-
Happiness is a clear sky and a Denk II
old AP images and some new C14 Hyperstar images
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Ishtim
super member
Reged: 11/10/07
Posts: 164
Loc: N. Alabama, USA
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Interesting concept. You may want to try a webcam with fast "shutter" speed to get "stills". I am curious to see how it goes.
GOOD LUCK!
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Lewis Smith Lake Observatory
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Geoff48
member
Reged: 07/30/08
Posts: 14
Loc: N 43˚ 14' 52.7" W 71I...
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I've seen the phenomena, never tried to photograph it. You'll have to be awfully quick, maybe impossibly so. Isn't it a little early for migration season? I would guess things will get going in another 2-3 weeks here.
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Geoff. Since 1960.
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Snaproll
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/20/04
Posts: 3500
Loc: Wisconsin
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Quote:
I've seen the phenomena, never tried to photograph it. You'll have to be awfully quick, maybe impossibly so. Isn't it a little early for migration season? I would guess things will get going in another 2-3 weeks here.
Some of the early shore birds (peeps) and hawks are in play, warblers in another couple of weeks according to my wife.
It looks like it's going to be getting cloudy here around sunset, so I really don't know if we'll get a window tonight.
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-Jim-
Happiness is a clear sky and a Denk II
old AP images and some new C14 Hyperstar images
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Jim Haley
sage
Reged: 07/04/07
Posts: 287
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I had a friend do that with a high flying jet. It turned out too cool!
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Jim Haley
12.5" f6 Starsplitter Dob
Orion 8" XTi (with computerized object locator)
Orion 114EQ reflector
80mm f6 refractor
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arpruss
sage
Reged: 05/23/08
Posts: 215
Loc: Waco, TX
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If there are enough birds, you might just use a brute force approach: just keep on clicking as fast as the camera and its flash card can handle as soon as there are birds in the vicinity of the moon. A lot of cameras can also be set to take a quick sequence of a couple of pictures. If you set it to this mode, and you see a bird flying towards the moon (it being full moon, you've got a good chance of seeing it, right?), you click, and then hope one of the frames will be good.
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Coulter Odyssey 8"
Skymaster 15x70
BPTs4 8x30
25(?)mm Rini, 27mm Kellner, Owl 10mm Plossl, 6mm TMB/BO Planetary, Owl 2X Barlow
Palm TX with AstroInfo and RescoViewer
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Snaproll
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/20/04
Posts: 3500
Loc: Wisconsin
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No dice tonight, too overcast 
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-Jim-
Happiness is a clear sky and a Denk II
old AP images and some new C14 Hyperstar images
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Protheus
Vaguely offended
Reged: 09/01/07
Posts: 4664
Loc: Illinois, US
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If you've got some kind of rapid-fire mode on the camera, you'd be surprised what you can catch with it. Start just before you expect to want the shots, and end just after. Sure, you blow a lot of frames, but especially if you have a digital camera, it's not usually a problem.
You should be able to set up for the shot early by finding a way that you can get detail in the moon with a reasonably fast shutter-speed (which you'll need to catch motion)...
Chris
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"To tread the sharp edge of a sword;
to run on smooth-frozen ice,
one needs no footsteps to follow..."
"Well, people sometimes ask me 'how did you get involved in astronomy?' I said 'I got born, what's your problem?'" -- John Dobson
"In discussing the large-scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved, or that the universe is finite but unbounded. Whatever are they talking about?" -- Carl Sagan
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