This Morning's Lunar Eclipse

[corkyg]

After hearing the news l;ast night, I decided to get up at 3:15 AM (Tucson time) and try to get a picture of the lunar eclipse and the forecasted "Japanese Lantern" Effect; This is it:

Eclipse

Technically, I mounted my EOS 5D on a tripod and used my 70-300mm DO IS lens, and a cable release. I got it all focused at infinity, set the ISO to 3200, and used a 2.5 second exposure at f/5.6. I then cropped the resulting image for "emailability."

The sky was really dark, and conditions were just about perfect - no clouds or haze.

 

[OdiN]

2.5 seconds is a bit long for a moon shot.

Looks like you got a bit of vibration too. Did you try mirror lock up?

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: OdiN
2.5 seconds is a bit long for a moon shot.

Looks like you got a bit of vibration too. Did you try mirror lock up?

No, I didn't. It was dark and I was simly fumbling with controls by memory. I didn't think of the mirror lock up. I'll remember that next time.

This was a rather dark moon - the 2.5 seconds was what the camera decided on. 🙂

 

[ElFenix]

dang, wish i'd gotten up, though i think it was overcast

 

[Jawo]

Nice....couldnt see it on the east coast since the sun was coming up.....

 

[otispunkmeyer]

id probably of used a lower ISO

i dunno if its this computer or this browser but the bottom half of the image has some really horrible noise

its quite odd seeing how the stars move in the sky as the earth rotates....even at 2.5seconds there you can see the stars have moved. i wouldnt of thought theyd move that much. quite awesome

 

[essasin]

Originally posted by: OdiN
2.5 seconds is a bit long for a moon shot.

Looks like you got a bit of vibration too. Did you try mirror lock up?

I would have taken a longer exposure for a bigger effect. I saw some two hour exposures and they turned out spectacular.

 

[troytime]

Originally posted by: essasin

Originally posted by: OdiN
2.5 seconds is a bit long for a moon shot.

Looks like you got a bit of vibration too. Did you try mirror lock up?

I would have taken a longer exposure for a bigger effect. I saw some two hour exposures and they turned out spectacular.

the moon moves a lot in 2 hours

 

[corkyg]

Well, here's a post script. To lock the mirror up on the 5D requires pre-planning and enabling it in the custom menus. It then requires two clicks - first to lock up the mirror and then to release the shutter. But, that would remain in effect until disabled in the menu. Part of the plan would be to disable it after the shoot.

A two hour exposure would have been a long streak - the moon and the Earth both move. Also, the light would have changed as the sun would have risen. But - my main consideration would be that I would not have been able to get back to bed for two hours more sleep.

And, last evening, it was used on Tucson's Channel 4 news (KVOA) and for that purpose, it looked very good.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
id probably of used a lower ISO

i dunno if its this computer or this browser but the bottom half of the image has some really horrible noise

its quite odd seeing how the stars move in the sky as the earth rotates....even at 2.5seconds there you can see the stars have moved. i wouldnt of thought theyd move that much. quite awesome

a friend had a telescope set up one night, and another friend was looking through the eyepiece at the moon. he then suddenly grabbed the telescope because he was afraid it was sliding downhill. he was actually seeing the relative movement of the moon to our position on earth.

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
id probably of used a lower ISO

i dunno if its this computer or this browser but the bottom half of the image has some really horrible noise

its quite odd seeing how the stars move in the sky as the earth rotates....even at 2.5seconds there you can see the stars have moved. i wouldnt of thought theyd move that much. quite awesome

a friend had a telescope set up one night, and another friend was looking through the eyepiece at the moon. he then suddenly grabbed the telescope because he was afraid it was sliding downhill. he was actually seeing the relative movement of the moon to our position on earth.

ha ha ha thats great! Props for getting on your local news corkyg!!