Hello all, i have a slight dilemna i wanna shoot Mars in the night sky on August 27th,2003 when Mars will be visible to the naked eyes and with plain binoculars the polar caps will be visible.What film speed should i use to shoot with a 35mm Cannon and a 250 zoom?Thanks, i wanna experience this and be able to try to take photos of it for my son, the next time this will happen will be in 60,000 years from now... LOL

You are going to need a much bigger zoom than 250mm. The best way would be to use a telescope with camera adapter and shoot through that. For a camera lens, you're gonna need something big. I don't know the size of Mars on the 27th, but I do know that to fill a 35mm frame with the Moon, you need something like a 2500mm lens. I was actually thinking of renting a 1200mm Canon L lens for the day with an EF 1.4x or EF 2.0x extender. On my Canon EOS 10D, that would equate to a lens of: with 1.4x Extender - 2688mm ~F/8 lens with 2x Extender - 3840mm f/11 lens With the 2x, the Moon would be about 35mm wide on a regular film frame. -=>Donald

Where are all of our astronomers when we really need them? [PC??] This was what a friend of mine wrote on August 12" "Even with the telescope, Mars still looks like a round dot; not a star, definitely a planet shape. Almost full moon was very cool to look at, tho, and weather (weekend) was beautiful. :) Took this pic with the little digital camera. Turned off flash, stuck it up against the telescope lens, zoomed in to fill the screen, and used the self timer. :)" If I get real ambitious, and find a dark enough place, I may try a wide-field shot. Should make a nice red streak.

As far as film speed and exposures (though I have not tried it for Mars) - you are shooting, in essence, a sunlit object, so to maintain detail of the planet (if you want to be able to make out the polar caps), I would think you would shoot at maybe 1 or 2 stops open from a normal daylight setting - say the equivalent of 1/ISO at f11 or f8. Of course, you'll be shooting through a monstrous lens, so you probably still want a fairly fast film to shoot at a fairly fast shutter sheed.

much appreciated

The Moon Shot is impressive....and the info...a bonus.