3rd March - Total Lunar Eclipse (Merged... again)

[jamovthenortheast]

Brill pics looked magnificant last nite, i was suprised there was clear skies to see it though

[Zenarcher]

Very nice Photos everyone

WELL DONE!!!!

[Rustynailer]

Lovely selection of pictures in this thread. Well done everybody.

Whilst out watching and snapping pictures last night i noticed the "Blood Moon" had a stimulating effect on local youths, they could be heard most of the night driving around the area in sporty hatchbacks wheel spinning and doing doughnuts. The 5 or 6 policemen on the island were all policing extra Leary drunks in Town no doubt, so the Fast Car mob ran amok, all rather surreal under a blood red moon .

The only complaint i have from last night is a stiff neck b/w

Regards.

Edited March 4, 2007 by Rustynailer

[frogesque]

Thanks for the info Blackie, and well done to everyone who tried. Great pool of info on this thread

For my part I was down at the beach near Kirckaldy with the camera propped up on a large boulder. Canon D60, Sigma 75-300 zoom lens, cable release but no tracking. I stuck with ISO 200 throughout and increased exposure as required and was up to 5 seconds (hence the trails and elongated smudging of the moon. Doesn't show too bad in the cropped version I put up but the full frame is pretty awful.

[Blackie]

Lovely selection of pictures in this thread. Well done everybody.

Whilst out watching and snapping pictures last night i noticed the "Blood Moon" had a stimulating effect on local youths, they could be heard most of the night driving around the area in sporty hatchbacks wheel spinning and doing doughnuts. The 5 or 6 policemen on the island were all policing extra Leary drunks in Town no doubt, so the Fast Car mob ran amok, all rather surreal under a blood red moon .

The only complaint i have from last night is a stiff neck b/w

Regards.

Know what you mean about the stiff neck, Russ! I spent the best part of an hour crouching down or kneeling on the patio and squinting into the viewfinder of my 20D. Now, why don't they make the image appear in the screen like they do with the point and shoot models? That would make life much easier to track and centre something like the moon.

I'd love to have been able to find a really solid support for last night, with the tripod not extended at all. On reflection it probably would have been quicker and better to have used the Manfrotto head with the trigger release rather than the fiddly carbon fibre one which I use for travel. And certainly a prime lens would have produced pin-sharp results. It's asking a lot of a zoom lens to capture crisp shots of the moon in full shadow using a zoom lens with lots of glass elements, especially stuck on a tripod where it is subject to the wind and vibrations from the shutter. And with exposures of several seconds (I think my fastest shutter speed last night was aout one second at 1600 ISO towards the end). Even using a remote cord won't completely cut out vibrations. Add to that the fact that each time you centred the moon for a shot it would move of-centre inside 15-20 seconds and it's not hard to understand why it was so difficult.

Essentially we were all trying to capture an event for which we didn't have the right equipment - especially considering it is probably one of the hardest things you will ever photogaph. Not many subjects I take pictures of are 250,000 miles away, moving like a bat out of hell, at night, in shade and in the middle of winter!

I don't know if anyone else experienced this, by the way, but I heard a fox screeching at the moon while it was in totality. Not quite as spine-tingling as if it had been a wolf, but still very eerie. Perhaps it was just practicing for when it applies to become a wolf. :lol: :lol: My wife had to pick up our daughters from work at 1am and she came across 5 foxes on Southend seafront as well. So they were out in force.

[Rustynailer]

Know what you mean about the stiff neck, Russ! I spent the best part of an hour crouching down or kneeling on the patio and squinting into the viewfinder of my 20D. Now, why don't they make the image appear in the screen like they do with the point and shoot models? That would make life much easier to track and centre something like the moon.

I'd love to have been able to find a really solid support for last night, with the tripod not extended at all. On reflection it probably would have been quicker and better to have used the Manfrotto head with the trigger release rather than the fiddly carbon fibre one which I use for travel. And certainly a prime lens would have produced pin-sharp results. It's asking a lot of a zoom lens to capture crisp shots of the moon in full shadow using a zoom lens with lots of glass elements, especially stuck on a tripod where it is subject to the wind and vibrations from the shutter. And with exposures of several seconds (I think my fastest shutter speed last night was aout one second at 1600 ISO towards the end). Even using a remote cord won't completely cut out vibrations. Add to that the fact that each time you centred the moon for a shot it would move of-centre inside 15-20 seconds and it's not hard to understand why it was so difficult.

Essentially we were all trying to capture an event for which we didn't have the right equipment - especially considering it is probably one of the hardest things you will ever photogaph. Not many subjects I take pictures of are 250,000 miles away, moving like a bat out of hell, at night, in shade and in the middle of winter!

I don't know if anyone else experienced this, by the way, but I heard a fox screeching at the moon while it was in totality. Not quite as spine-tingling as if it had been a wolf, but still very eerie. Perhaps it was just practicing for when it applies to become a wolf. :lol: My wife had to pick up our daughters from work at 1am and she came across 5 foxes on Southend seafront as well. So they were out in force.

With that 1000mm i managed some shots at 1-200th/sec but it fell off sharply from the half eclipse point. So in the end i fitted a 100-300 zoom which made life much easier, exposures ranged between 6 and 13 secs, the gentle breeze then came into play, i could feel it tugging on the remote lead.

I am that much of a learner i didn't even check what the ISO was set at :lol:

I found these pictures on the Spaceweather site:- http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_03mar07.htm B)

Regards,

Russ.

This one is cool :- http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/03mar07/Chevalley1.jpg

Edited March 4, 2007 by Rustynailer

[Andy Bown]

I have a stiff neck now so these two are the last from me.

I woke up with, and still have, a stiff neck. But it's well worthwhile for having experienced such a beautiful natural phenomenon :lol: .

I think I must have walked about 4 miles while it was going on, was out between 21.30 and midnight - had to keep moving to keep warm!

I was genuinely surprised by how red the moon appeared at totality, pics in this thread just reaffirm that surprise and awe.

It was lovely to be out in the middle of nowhere on my own, well apart from a few owls calling to each other and being spooked by a noise from the nearby woods.

[Mad Murdoch]

great pictures all.

i have neck and back pain today. joys are being photographer!

[richep]

A little blurred although i used a tripod,perhaps not correctly focused

Edited March 4, 2007 by richep

[Mad Murdoch]

great pictures, thanks for sharing :lol:

[Andy H]

Well done :lol:

[Zenarcher]

Well Done

:lol:

[geri2k]

some stunning photos in this thread.

how about some video? my camera is years old but I was happy with this

Wow, brings back all the memories. Excellent music with it too, very haunting and mystical.

Edited March 4, 2007 by geri2k

[MAF]

great pictures all.

i have neck and back pain today. joys are being photographer!

but the results are worth it when you post such good pics kel, and i bet the solitude out on the beach was nice too.

[Mad Murdoch]

but the results are worth it when you post such good pics kel, and i bet the solitude out on the beach was nice too.

yeah it was , just shame i was alone

there was a couple on the beach having picnic watching it... how romantic!

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

A little blurred although i used a tripod,perhaps not correctly focused

I think the blurring is because the shutter was open too long. You can tell by the stars in the second pic. I think it's space that has moved and not your camera, do you know what shutter speed you used?

Still nice pics though.

some stunning photos in this thread.

how about some video? my camera is years old but I was happy with this

Excellent video, love the music too well done

And well done everyone else, some cracking photos.

Edited March 4, 2007 by multi cellular thunderstorm

[frogesque]

One of my better ones taken earlier just after totality. Still a bit blurred with star trailing, this was a 3 second exposure with a 1:4-5.6, 75-300mm zoom lens fully extended without tracking

.