The Lunar Ghost
Sony NEX-5N, Nikkor 70-300VR @ 5" f5.6
ISO 100
Ghosting happens when direct light hits the front element of a lens,
bounces around inside a bit and creates a blog of light in the image.
It is a trait commonly associated with older complex lenses. While
taking the image, I focused on the ghost which gave me this green ghost
of the moon instead of a random unfocused blob. With all the modern
coatings applied to optics, having a ghost as large and as distinct as
the above is pretty much unheard of. I was surprised to see it, and
didn't realize until the next morning that the large prominent ghost
was caused by my addition of a Tiffen 0.6 Grad ND Filter. Obviously not
a very well coated filter. I'm not a big fan of using clear
"protective" filters because they can create ghosting like this when
you don't want it. And below is the original, uncropped image, where
the moon is obvious as the light source creating the ghost.
