Topic: heads up for a neat photo op..total eclipse of the Moon

[astrobeck]

Sorry, it's mostly for North American residents, but on December 21, (also the Day of Winter Solstice) we have a photo op for recording a fully eclipsed Moon.

There's a timetable at http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar-eclipse-december-21-2010.html if you care to give it a try.

I usually just set my camera (attached to a telescope)  and shoot with ISO 200 and bracket like crazy.

You'll need a zoom, otherwise the moon will look like a tiny dot on the photo, and since totality happens in the middle of the night for most of the middle section of North America, you might just want to try for the early phases when the moon is just partially in the Earth's shadow.

At any rate, give it a go and see what happens.
The attached photo was made a few years ago with a 6 inch telescope at prime focus.
Focal Length 1500 mm
F Ratio 10
Exposure    6 seconds
Film Kodak Elite Chrome 200
Should add....Nikon N80

[Francois]

That would mean for me the dusty 500mm mirror and Doubler... and I still would be a tad too short for a full frame...

[astrobeck]

the eclipse is worth a shot no matter what you try it with though.
I've seen some pretty neat shots with just 50mm lenses on cameras.

Think about foreground subjects like trees or buildings to set it off.
I'd be interested in seeing results from folks here.
 

[Francois]

That is if I manage to stay awake late enough 

[Heather]

I've tried with a 200mm lens then sandwiched three negatives together. It was impressively grainy and incredibly long printing times.

6 seconds? really? I would have thought the moon would have moved too much in that time to give that sort of picture... oh wait err you have one of those barndoor sky tracker things don't you?

I'll be visiting in the US then so I might take a look depending on how cold it is  Only problem is my parents live in the forest so these sorts of things rarely work out well... I'd be better off taking a picture like this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pond%E2%80%94Moonlight

[Ed Wenn]

....and if you did take a photo like that I bet you'd be chuffed sick.

 

Becky: Cheers for the tip...we rely on you for this type of info and it's always very much appreciated.

[Francois]

6 seconds? really? I would have thought the moon would have moved too much in that time to give that sort of picture... oh wait err you have one of those barndoor sky tracker things don't you?

Knowing Becky, she probably has a tracking gimbal on her tripod... But I know that under regular non-eclipsed conditions, you can shoot a clear view of the moon using the sunny/16 rule...

[astrobeck]

Heather- I love that shot!  It is very mysterious! give it a shot regardless of where you are.  I have been surprised by results of my own at times, so it's always worth gearing up and going for it in my book.   

I use a Losmandy GM8 mount for most of my sky shots, but that's an overkill mount for most regular photographer types....

The Moon moves enough in  6 seconds that it would blur, so that shot was on a tracking mount.

Barndoor trackers are easy enough for the handyman to build and work well for shots that take less than 20 minutes.  Astronaut Don Pettit used a very modified barn door tracker aboard the international space station to make astrophotos in space.

  

[jojonas~]

thanks for the tip! I have to check into this more to see if I actually can see it.

too tired to make any sense of it all but I found this nifty map! crowd goes: oooh~  aaah~