Big savings of $340 on the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Lens (opens in new tab) this Black Friday over at B&H mean you can take your moon photography to the next level.
This F-mount Nikon fit lens provides ample zoom with its 200-500mm focal length range which is more than powerful enough to get a good zoom on the lunar surface for moon photography and lunar eclipses. Designed primarily for use on full-frame Nikon cameras this lens mount also fits APS-C crop sensor Nikon bodies which will give a perceived magnification of 1.5x. This equates to a 50% greater focal length zoom so the 200-500mm actually equates to around 300-750mm for super close-up moon shots.
The 25% discount on the Nikon 200-500mm lens (opens in new tab) saves you a quarter on the original sale price for a lens that’s ideal for astro if you’re happy to pair it with one of the best star trackers for astrophotography. With a star tracker, even the slightly narrow f/5.3 aperture is counteracted as the tracker rotates with the earth to keep celestial objects in perfect view through the lens. Just make sure you take the combined lens and camera body weight into account when purchasing a star tracker (otherwise known as a payload).
The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR has some quality optics inside. First off, three Extra-low dispersion (ED) glass elements sit inside the beefy lens to provide a correction of chromatic aberration (color fringing). This ensures contrasted edges like around bright stars on a dark are free from color aberrations and are clearly defined in final astrophotographs.
At a rather hefty 6.9 lb (3.14 kg) the 200-500mm lens isn’t particularly fun to handhold. But when paired with one of the best tripods for astrophotography or a monopod it’s ideal for shooting all kinds of subjects from astro to wildlife, sports to aviation photography. It has a 95mm filter thread on the front element for attaching polarizers, neutral density filters or one of the best light pollution filters and features in-built Vibration Reduction (VR) which stabilizes images by up to 4.5 stops.
Be sure to check out Space.com’s Black Friday deals page, or our guide to the Best lenses for astrophotography or best cameras for astrophotography.
