Waiting for the Lunar Eclipse

Yet another excuse to photograph the moon, Tonight there was a full lunar eclipse[se expected to be visible over most of Australia. It had been a generally overcast day with just a few glimpse of sun, but I wasn't optimistic about a cloud free sky to catch the eclipse. At sunset I checked the clouds and a there where a few clear patches developing, but it soon clouded over again . Then just after 8pm (we are on daylight saving now) the clouds thinned and cleared completely as the first of the earth shadow started to cover the moon. This lasted about 40 minutes just enough time to get a decent sequence of the shadow progressively covering the moons surface, Just as things where going well over came the clouds. I only got a few glimpses of the flush of red colouring as totality approached and nothing after that.

Lunar Eclipse

There was a full lunar eclipse tonight here in New Zealand just after sunset, but unfortunately it was a heavy cloud cover and raining. So I only got a few glimpses of the eclipse and had to really push the ISO to get any decent exposure. However I was happy that I did capture realistic colour, for the so call "blood moon".

Photographs of the Partial Eclipse

         A collection of photos as I photographed a projection of this morning’s partial solar eclipse from my backyard.

Lightening, Overcast & Humid, No Glimpses of the Moon

 

I did get up especially and spent nearly an hour with my camera pointed skyward, hoping for just a glimpse of the lunar eclipse, but the skies here in Jakarta remained heavilyovercast. In fact the clouds where so low they where well lit my the city lights. The constant thunder and lightening did backlight the clouds and give hints of a few gaps, but the slightest trace of the moon, or the shadow of the earth on it, never materialized. Adding to the challenge was the extreme humidity, so everything on the camera fogged up. Even after half an hour to acclimatize, I found I still need to have my cleaning cloth wrapped around the camera.

I did manage an available light photograph of the fountain, beside which I had set up my tripod.

Look out for the Lunar eclipse on Friday Morning

There is another lunar eclipse about to happen on Thursday night to early Friday morning before sunrise.It will be a partial eclipse for New Zealand and eastern Australia in the hours lending up to day break. In Indonesian there will be a full eclipse earlier in the morning. I happen to be in Jakarta at the moment so I will be hoping for clear skies. Its been very wet and overcast here for the past few days but tonight there was some hope the clouds cleared and the sky was clear enough to get a good view of the moon.

I did some some decent photos for the last partial/almost full lunar eclipse in June 2011. Including a free wallpaper/poster, which you can download from flickr.

There will be 2 more lunar eclipse this year.

PhotoProject :: Stay at Home Eclipse

The total eclipse this morning saw a hoard of photographers heading for Cairns and Port Douglas. Although I would have liked to be with them I was committed to being in Melbourne, which only got a partial eclipse. However this was an opportunity to expand on the telescope image projection technique, I have used back during the Transit of Venus Project in June this year. The method involves using a conventional telescope to focus the image of the sun projected onto a screen behind it. It worked particularly well to capture the partial eclipse, see sequences of images above, which I’m sure would have gone undetected by most in Melbourne despite the cloudless conditions.

As anyone with a decent telescope will know the tricky part is finding the object you want to observe. Under any decent magnification, the sky is a huge place. This is made even trickier because you must never look at the sun directly at any time and especially not through a telescope, so using the small siting scope is out. Then I had a brilliant realization, a bit like in the movie “The Dish”" when they were trying to locate the tiny Apollo 11 in the vastness of space!! (I won’t spoil the plot if you haven’t seen the movie yet, it is worth it). Well I realized I just needed to orient the shadow of the telescope so the barrel just became a circle and was thus pointing directly at the sun. All too easy and no looking directly at the sun required! A few minor tweaks where still required to ensure the projected image of the moving sun stayed roughly on the screen.

Lunar Eclipse II :: as it happens

Just like the last time I photographed an eclipse of the moon I plan to blog my photos as it happens. Wish me luck and stay tuned.

9:30PM July 15th. 2011. The Full Moon is high in the sky and its a lovely clear night, no clouds and no hint of fog (yet) but it is a very cold night. My first attempt at getting a good photo is a disaster. I’ve let the camera do the focusing (and it tracked back & forth a few times) before firing.  The exposure the camera has selected is 0.7sec and aperture f4.5 and ISO set to 400. Out of focus and pretty much a disaster.  The next shot I focussed manually and I get a sharp edged albeit burnt out white disc on an almost black background, still not good enough. Then that moment of dread for most outdoor photographers, as the possums looked on quizzically the camera battery went dead, and I still only have the one rechargeable battery and no useful moon images. Damn, but its ok I’m just in the back yard and there is a charger handy. Back into the warmth for a few hours.

10:00 PM. I’m interested to see what the photo packages think of my first photo. Windows Live gallery’s  Auto-adjust seems to think everything is ok, I can no see any difference after I’ve used it. Picasa’s I’m feeling lucky darked the image a little, so the flaring is a little less obvious. Adobe's Photoshop Element’s Smart Fix, somewhat surprisingly, lightens the image a lot, so it really looks patchy and even more out of focus. Yuk. So much for the automatic stuff and all that technology. The real photography will need to start now.

11:00 PM Batteries still charging, sky still clear some stars flickering.

MIDNIGHT Battery charged, at last. Manual focus this time and remote shutter button. Quick experiment with exposures 1/125 second at f32 but still ISO400, seems to give a clear reference picture of the full moon straight above me now. However the stars are not so bright as before, Hope its the brightness of the moon causing this and not a volcanic dust haze starting. No fog but its really cold now. Into a warm bed until 5:00 am.

 

:5:00 AM July 16th. 2011 Already missed a good part of the eclipse. The moon is starting to take on the red glow and the star are coming out. the next three images are at different times. Hoevr your mouse over them to see the time. Very long exposures now (up to 20 seconds and ISO 1600, hence the “noise”)

 

 

  

6:30AM, The moon’s fully eclipsed outline is hard to see now and dropping out of my view behind trees and roof to the west. The  predawn is lighting the sky in the east. Time for a new vantage point. So much traffic on east link, deafening, sounds like peak hour is early today or is it the still conditions amplifying the sound?

7:00 AM I abandon my search for a better vantage point. The sun is coming up now and the moon has slipped behind the local horizon. That’s all folks.

Photographing tonight’s eclipse of the moon

Tonight's eclipse of the moon should be worth getting up to photograph. The coloured part of the eclipse will happen over in the western sky at 6:30am EST (Eastern Standard Time in Australia) and the dust from the Chilean Volcano may help enhance the “blood” red colour during the eclipse. Well actually I haven’t noticed any dramatic change in either the sunrises or sunsets so don’t hold your breathe about the redness. the eclipse will continue till almost 7am but by then the rising sun will wash out the detail. The sky should be clear if you can get above any fog.

I did manage to photograph an eclipse of the moon from my front garden back in 2007. Its a little more difficult than you might think. My Advice is -

1. Use a good tripod
2. Use the B setting and an remote control/cable release to get a long exposure but keep your camera still
3. Don’t trust your light meter! Experiment with the timing and f-stop to get a clear exposure (since the lighting changes dramatically during the eclipse you will need to keep changing your settings.)
4. Rug up! It is going to be a cool night.

Here is some extra more general advice from Lifehacker, and detailed advice from Mr Eclipse on taking Photos of an eclipse.

More wallpapers

You are free to download these wallpapers for private use, just click on any image above. That takes you to my wallpaper area on flickr, use the All Sizes option to see a larger image, and use Set Wallpaper option in your browser on the displayed image or download it to your computer. If the image size is not correct for your screen, you can use the Stretch option, which will enlarge or shrink the wallpaper to fit.

lunar eclipse :: as it happens

Maybe this a bad ideas, beacuse it is a very cloudy start, but i'll try it anyway. I'll be updated this post as the eclipse happens. But remember the most recent pictures will be at the top, so read the sequence from bottom right and backwards up to top right.

PS I was a bit stressed trying to do this and keep watching for breaks in the clouds, but I think it worked out in the end.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Last night was not promising for good eclipse photography tonight, whilst it was beautofull all day it clouded over at sunset. GOOD for a sunset photo, but the moon was hidden and hazy. Setting my camera to all automatic was definitely BAD, even after i switched to MF (manual focus, to stop the lens processing backwards and forwards unable to make up its mind how tho focus, the light metter obviously got fooled by the strong contrast and the bright light flared out. The best I got at 8:35PM was still UGLY (I have better shoots of the detail on the moon, the haziness here is probably atmospheric moisture). I found switched back to manual and low ISO (200 is as low as I can get) with the fstop at f8 and 1/250, and a tripod! I'm expecting to have to change the length to maybe 5 minutes plus during totality

The MrEclipse web site, mentioned in the pre-quel post, scroll two posts down, is still the best reference with hints on photographing the lunar elcipse I have found. Its Table 3, an exposure guide may be very useful for those judging how to change manual settings during the eclipse

Pre-quel :: lunar eclipse, techniques & hints

MrEclipse.com has a good summary of techniques and hints for lunar eclipse photography, along with some excellent examples. The eclipse takes a while and a big advantage of having a digital camera is you will have plenty of time to review your photos and perhaps make some adjustments, or why not get out tonight and try a few of the techniques discussed in the link above.

Even if you don't plan to photograph it, it is an event your should make an effort to get outside and watch.

Photo Opportunity, lunar eclipse

Want to know what an eclipse of the moon has to do with chickens nibblies and Christopher Columbus? Listen to the latest science show podcast, and find out why it will turn red. In any event the full eclipse, visible across eastern Australia, should be a photographers delight, The eclipse will last from 5:52pm to 11:22pm Eastern Australian Standard Time, 28th August 2007. With the most interesting red phase at 8:37pm. I hope to get a decent 15 minute apart sequence, so I'm hoping it won't be cloudy. (Remember the tripod)

Ten to 8 Tuesday night till about 9:20pm will be the best time to view the lunar eclipse from the east coast of Australia.

There is a fact sheet about the lunar eclipse on the Astronomical Society of Australia wesite