FRAV

With a few clear nights available and an almost full moon - I decided to try my luck with some moon shots.
Although the night was clear - the only "star" visible was Venus.
I took the photos in RAW and Jpeg.
When I processed the Raw images I saw thousands of stars! They did not show up in the Jpegs.
I have never seen a sky light up like that!
There were so many that I am wondering if I am seeing "noise" or some other camera / processing anomaly.
Attached is one of my shots - your thoughts please.
I used a CanonT5 - 150-300mm @300 - ISO 1300 - shutter 640.

Frav

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

You have created a very interesting photograph. ISO of 1300 generally does not show "noise" to the extent you have captured. You have photographed that section of the universe and you have done a great job in doing so. This does not appear to be "noise" but are objects such as our own Earth, planets. Would make an exceptional 13" x 19" wall-hanger. Nice done.

LEWHITE7747 Loc: 33773

Could you repost and store original so it can be downloaded and enlarged. Very bizarre anomaly? I think it is some pixilation because you must have really cropped the photo with only a 300mm lens.

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

Well, they’re not stars. They’re too close to the left side of the moon where the moon would be in front of them. Maybe noise?

gsmith051 Loc: Fairfield Glade, TN

Wow! I have never seen the moon look like that especially with a 300 mm reach. Would you use the download function so we can take a closer look.

vineyardman Loc: Florida

If you have ever observed the heaven’s at night, in a completely void of artificial light area, you would see that there are, in fact, that many “stars” in the heavens. While out in the boonies- on a moonless night, away from any populated areas- in Vietnam in 63 & 67– I was always amazed at the amount. You could read a newspaper from the brightness given off just from the stars.
If your picture is of the stars or not, only a professional can tell—of which I’m not…

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Always eye-catching ⭐💎⭐💎⭐

IDguy Loc: Idaho

The dark area to the right of the moon is also odd.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

The crunchy look of the moon (plus its white outline with a touch of green at top) suggests the "stars" are artifacts from over-sharpening. You could convert your raw to jpg with no edits, upload with "store original" box checked, and let us edit to see what we can come up with - rather than force us to continue to guess

Alternative: if your raw file is less than 22 mb, upload it directly. There will be no pic to view, just a link for us to download to our computers.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It is noise and/or pixels showing, they are on the moon area also, just subdued more.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

NO. Not stars.

hettmoe Loc: Rural ND

No. Not stars, at all.

Jack47 Loc: Ontario

It’s snowing😂😂😂

Red6

As others have mentioned I think it is a combination of several issues such as too high ISO and overprocessing. I do not think those are stars. It is a combination of noise, background light reflecting from the atmosphere and the effects of post-processing. You did not tell us what your aperture was but I suspect you may have been wide open which would contribute to the problem. The moon itself seems to be close to a good exposure using that fast shutter speed and high ISO but the ISO contributes to the other issues.

The moon is one of my favorite subjects and since it is in direct sunlight it rarely needs an ISO of more than 200. The only reason to go any higher is if you are handheld where you may need a higher shutter speed. Much like the Sunny 16 rule, there is a Lunar 11 rule which is a good place to start. Try an aperture of f/11, ISO of around 200, and make the shutter speed the reciprocal of the ISO setting, or 1/200 sec.

As I said these are good starting points. I rarely vary the aperture f/11 but may move the shutter speed up to 1/320 or 1/400 in pursuit of sharper images. But remember to change the ISO accordingly; ISO 400 for 1/400 second, ISO 320 for 1/320, etc. Again, an ISO of 200 and a shutter of 1/200 will usually produce great shots. But remember the moon itself is moving and its position is constantly changing and depending on the time of the month this motion may affect your images so adjust as needed.

Bison Bud

I agree that it is probably artifacts from over processing! Probably used an extreme crop, then over-sharpened it as well. I think the dark ring around the Moon and the pock marked texture of the moon surface also point in this direction.