Lunar eclipse? Not yours.

[olavf]

olavf, looks good, I wouldn’t mind seeing a full-res crop.

Clouds didn’t turn out to be quite as bad as initially forecast, mostly just low-lying haze, but the humidity was off the charts. Extremely dense fog and condensation, so not exactly ideal shooting conditions. rav, hope you got a little less atmospheric moisture out there. The haze really shows up in the totality shots.

Thanks! I barely started poking through the rest of them last night before I crashed – that one just caught my eye. I plan to spend the evening going through then – after I get my contest subs together 😛

That was our problem too – It was clear for a while, up until about 50%. Then the clouds started coming in, and I had to shoot through holes. Then they went away and the haze totally kicked in in time for the full eclipse. Oh well.

Looks like you got some great ones though, all things considered!

[CauseISaidSo]

CISS, you got some lovely shots

Thanks, rav!

although it was clear here at 10:00 i had to get up at 5:00 and passed. seeing these makes me wish i’d stayed up.

That was a consideration for me, too. I went to bed about 4:30 and got up at 8;30 to see if I had a last-minute conference call scheduled for 9 like I have the past couple of days. Fortunately not, so I went back for another couple of hours sleep. 🙂

I pondered getting up to shoot the moon. It was twenty one degrees with twenty five mile an hour winds off the river. The bed was warm. I think I made the proper choice.

I don’t blame you, those were my exact thoughts for the Geminids. But, if the world comes to an end in 2012 and you miss the 2014 eclipse, don’t come cryin’ to me… 🙂

After the last one, I swore that for the next one I’d take carefully timed shots to get a more defined timelapse. But, my oldest is home from college and he and I and my youngest went out, so there was more socializing than serious photography and I can’t say I regret it.

So, here’s a composite of my shots at roughly 10-minute intervals starting about 12:45am CST and running through 3:25am. I didn’t stay for the whole thing as it was really starting to get cold and wet. Click on the pic to view in full-res size.

[ravnostic]

But, if the world comes to an end in 2012 and you miss the 2014 eclipse, don’t come cryin’ to me… 🙂

There’s another one Dec 10th next year, at least in the western states. 😀

Did you change the ISO or exposure at all? You should submit those somewhere. It’s an excellent collage.

[CauseISaidSo]

There’s another one Dec 10th next year, at least in the western states. 😀

Did you change the ISO or exposure at all? You should submit those somewhere. It’s an excellent collage.

I didn’t know that. I thought the April 2014 event was the next. It’s possible I ignored it since it wasn’t applicable to me.

I kept the ISO at 100, but the exposures vary from F9 @ 1/80 (the mostly full start of the collage) to F4 @ 1/4 (edited: that should be 4 secs, not 1/4) during totality and back to F9 @ 1/15 at the end.

And thanks very much! I’m not sure where I’d submit them, though.

[ravnostic]

space.com has a forum, for one. The camera you used has a mftr website, I’d suppose, and you might be able to submit them there. Any of the astronomy magazines. Your local paper.

The 2014 comes in play when ‘visible across the United States’ is employed. In 2010 if you live far enough west you’ll have an opportunity, though not one as good. But weather permitting, I’ll see it go total as it sets in the west, and California will see a bit more of the same, only higher up. If I can find the right horizon, it would make a splendid picture.

[Curious]

I kept the ISO at 100, but the exposures vary from F9 @ 1/80 (the mostly full start of the collage) to F4 @ 1/4 during totality and back to F9 @ 1/15 at the end.

they really are nice photos but what struck me in this discussion is the low ISOs and the (relatively) high F stops and shutter speeds.

next chance i get i’m going to have to take some full moon shots to see what i can get.

one question for you all. manual focus at ??? i’ve heard that infinity isn’t good for these. of course i may be misremembering too.

[CauseISaidSo]

Curious, my eyes aren’t good enough to do much manual focusing (don’t they make some kind of a grid that supposed to help with that?), so the way I did it was to auto-focus while the moon was bright and then switch the lens to manual to retain that focus setting for the remaining shots. Looking at the gauge on the lens, it looked like it was on the infinity mark, but it’s hard to tell exactly how on the mark it is from that gauge.

The other thing I did that appeared to help (based solely on the one other time I’ve photographed an eclipse) was to use mirror lockup. And of course I shot in RAW which gives you a lot more leeway in final exposure in case you’re off just a bit.

Also, my bad – the exposure during totality should’ve read F4 @ 4 secs and not 1/4. The other two exposures are correct.

If I can find the right horizon, it would make a splendid picture.

I agree. That was the only “problem” (well, that and the weather) with this eclipse – it was so high in the sky there wasn’t really any good way to get any kind of ground reference in the shot. The last eclipse in Aug ’07 ended close to moonset out here, so you could catch it closer to the horizon, like in this entry from All Night Long.

[Choc-Ful-A]

That composite image showing the timeline of the eclipse is fantastic CauseISaidSo!

[Curious]

my sister, who used to teach photography, says with a bright moon you can almost use the “sunny sixteen” rule so i must just be nuts.

CauseISaidSo IIRC someone in here said that auto focus lenses run out past infinity to allow them to come back to proper focus. hence when you manually focus you also need to back off a full twist to infinity just a tad. need to do tests of that also. my sister is here for the holidays so there will be photo excursions.

[nobigdeal]

I use live view on my camera for moon shot focus. I could never ever manually focus through the viewfinder.

moon shot by MusicInPictures.net (Ken Cote), on Flickr
f11 @ 1/250, ISO 800, 300mm

[CauseISaidSo]

Thanks, Choc-Ful-A!

And nice shot, NBD. I’ve got the 30D, so no live view for me. What did you do to get that level of detail? The difference between 300mm and 280mm isn’t that much, is it? While you can make out the maria in my shots, there’s no crater detail. I guess it could also be the haze – did you have clear/dry skies?

[nobigdeal]

Yea very clear, very cold (I think it was about 11 degrees) January night. the level of detail was achieved using live view magnified to the max to focus. I am wondering if you can use RemoteCapture in Camera Window in the canon utilities as a live view? I know I can with my 40D.

[orionid]

Thanks, Choc-Ful-A!

And nice shot, NBD. I’ve got the 30D, so no live view for me. What did you do to get that level of detail? The difference between 300mm and 280mm isn’t that much, is it? While you can make out the maria in my shots, there’s no crater detail. I guess it could also be the haze – did you have clear/dry skies?

NBD‘s looks to be at a 1/4 moon, vice during the eclipse. That means the moon’s got a side light, which will bring out the texture in the craters. During the eclipse, you have full-moon head-on lighting which flattens the craters.

And I also want to echo what everyone else said: Nice timeline!

[CauseISaidSo]

Ah, that makes sense. I’ll have to give try it some other time and see what comes out.

And thanks!

[ravnostic]

This is a picture in a green-lit photoshop contest coming up. Nice!

[Image deleted so’s I don’t get busted by the PSer’s. Maybe I’ll remember to put it back up when it goes live.]

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