Once again trying to catch up to date on photo fun. This past December was an event that only happens every 400 years or so and that is a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. We get lunar eclipses more often, but not on the winter solstice. I have tried to catch the eclipses in the past and have always missed, mainly due to weather, I have been a little envious of others in parts of the country that have the clearer skies , no light pollution and the right timing to witness such events. This year was my turn and I don't think I will be around for the next one. Watching a forum I visit, before the time came others were lamenting about cloud cover and rain in their areas. South eastern PA was clear and cold. Absolutely clear skies. The temperature was 25 and the wind was about the same. The area was also in the viewing area for meteor showers and I might have seen one but if you have ever watched a meteor shower before, it takes more than one to be sure you saw it. They travel across the sky in a blink of an eye.
I set my alarm for 1:15am and got up from the sofa (Hey, Sheryll isn't that crazy! She was in the warm bed.) Since I already prepared the camera gear earlier, I just needed to take it out for each picture. The first images I took were at 2:50am when the shadow was just beginning to block part of the moon. In my location it was the upper left hand portion of the moon. The first were at 1/500 sec @ f8. It may sound crazy and it may sound too fast of a shutter speed, but using the 80-400 @400, the moon dominates the scene and is similar to daylight. All were shot at ISO 400. This follows the rule of "lunar eleven" (1/ over the ISO for the shutter speed @ f11) which is similar to the "sunny 16" rule (1/over the ISO @f16). I adjusted to f@8 to increase the shutter speed because of movement of the Earths' rotation. I'm not sure if this would come in to play with the full moon but may for the following shots. So if you follow the panorama from left to right the shutter speeds are (keeping in mind that all are @f8 and ISO 400), 1/500, 1/400, combination of 1/100 for the fingernail and 1/60 for the shadow moon (combined in Photoshop Elements), 2 sec, 2 sec, 2 sec, and finally back to the 1/500. I combined the seven images in PSE using Photomerge Panorama using the interactive setting and placing the separate images manually. Once that was accomplished, rather easily I might add, I just tweaked the brightness slightly. All shots were taken using a Manfrotto 055cxpro4 carbon fiber tripod with a Manfrotto 3030 three way axis head and a Nikon infrared remote shutter release. All shots were shot manually. If I tried to shoot just using f8, the camera will always try to expose for all the sensor sees and so will read the total black in sky resulting in a picture that over exposes the white in the moon.
The shots were approximately 30 minutes apart, give or take 5 minutes, except for the fifth and sixth shots in the merge. It seemed like the light was changing quickly as the moon lost the shadow as these are only 7 minutes apart. Not sure why but in my images it is apparent the lighting changed. I did bring the equipment in between shots to warm the photographer and I really didn't care to leave over $3000 worth of equipment unattended in my driveway. Not sure what two legged or four legged creatures roam the night. Fifteen-twenty mile an hour winds can sap the heat from you quickly, especially just standing around and not moving. Early trips in brought the addition of extra layers. I just covered the camera with a towel in between trips out to keep it from having any problems with condensation. I didn't really expect any problems as the humidity level was so low but it pays to be cautious and to keep in practice when out photographing in the cold later. The only concern when shooting and it was almost a disaster was that the camera had trouble auto focusing on the full eclipse. It just would not focus but kept traveling through the full range trying to lock in. Panic really set in as I had trouble using just my eye. Picture that image. Camera on the tripod and shooting at an angle of about 45degrees in the portrait orientation and of course to try an limit movement from the wind I had it lowered from its full extension. I'm not sure what a cop would have thought upon arriving on that scene. I finally pulled out my right angle adapter (Nikon DR-6) with its ability to go to 2x and got it with that. I shot more shots playing with that then any else. Amazing what a shot of adrenaline will do. Next time I will definitely lock the focus in when I had the chance. My eye just can't do as well as the auto focus.
I am pretty psyched with the results and they are real close to the "phew" pictures I always try to capture. I missed about 5 hours of sleep but would definitely do it again given the same conditions. I don't know how they could have been better, photographically speaking. I hope you enjoyed it and learned from my experience. And remember....
Always go to the light,
Steve
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