There was a total lunar eclipse tonight which is a great excuse to pull out the long lenses and take a few pictures. (I couldn't spend too much time on it because I needed to finish moving all the furniture before the carpet people come tomorrow.)
The weather was not cooperative as the lunar eclipse began. The sky was covered in clouds to the east, and I couldn't make out the moon except for a small glowing area of the sky. After dinner, I took another look and the moon had moved into a thinner cloud region where you could make out the general shape and color. It had taken on a decidedly copper color from the refracted light that enters the shadow of the earth. I noticed that the clouds were getting thinner, so I grabbed my gear and setup my tripod outside my condo. Picture after picture came out fuzzy or motion blurred because of the cloud cover (fuzzy because the clouds diffuse the light from the moon, motion blurred because sometimes the clouds were so thick that I had to use exposures long enough to have the moon traverse a noticeable amount of the frame during the exposure). This is one of the few passable photos of the total eclipse. Nothing salable, but still fun to capture.
I then went back indoors and packed up more stuff. When I came outside again to move some boxes to storage, I took a glance at the moon and found that it had moved into an opening in the clouds. We were now in a partial eclipse and the shadow of the earth was moving at what seemed like a noticeable pace. I ran back inside and grabbed my camera and setup again outside.
Partially Eclipsed Moon (500mm, f/11, 1/80 sec. manual exposure on a Nikon D100 at ISO 200 equivalence)When the shadow was about to completely leave the moon, the break in the clouds ended and the moon slipped under the haze. I packed up and went back inside.
Related Articles
Much appreciated,
Alredhead
Go ahead and use the photos, just include the statement "Courtesy of Michael Chu" with it.
Did you take multiple exposures on the same frame or did you composite the images to get the four shots in one?