Total Lunar Eclipse - Blood Moon

handicap18

<font color=blue>Husband, father of 3, and Disney
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Early in the morning next Tuesday most of North America will be able to view a total lunar eclipse.

These times are for the Eastern Time Zone:

Partial eclipse begins April 15 at 1:59am (Partial moon eclipse starts - moon is getting red.)

Total eclipse begins April 15 at 3:08am (Total moon eclipse starts - completely red moon.)

Maximum eclipse begins April 15 at 3:46am (Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.

Total eclipse ends April 15 at 4:23am

This is from the Christian Post:
The Blood moon Tetrad will feature an extremely rare phenomenon whereby four blood red lunar eclipses take place, each followed by six full moons.

Skygazers are eagerly awaiting to catch a glimpse of the Blood Moon, which will first appear on April 15, with the cycle continuing for more than a year all the way through to Sept. 28, 2015.

The first lunar eclipse in the cycle will take place during the Jewish Passover, and will see the moon turn blood red, a result of the sun's light reflecting off the Earth's atmosphere.

A spokesperson for NASA has said, "This is the first eclipse of the year and is well placed for observers throughout the Western Hemisphere. It will occur at the lunar orbit's ascending node in Virgo."

The first Blood Moon is scheduled to appear in the sky at about 3.07 a.m. ET on April 15, 2014, but will only last around 30 minutes, according to analysts – although the entire eclipse should last for more than an hour.

Those who want to see the Blood Moon are advised to try and stay away from city lights, and if watching from garden areas, ensure you turn off garden lights and other lights from the house that may interfere.

Experts have advised, as long as the sky is clear the blood moon will be visible to the naked eye, and should be an amazing sight.


Right now the forecast for the Boston area is partly cloudy Monday night but clearing as it gets into early Tuesday. I have treatment on Monday and for the last 4 treatments I have been up till 3 or 4 am because of the steroids. At least this time I'll have something productive to do. :yay::yay:
 
For this event I think I'll use my D300 rather than my D700. I'll also use my 70-300mm lens with the 1.4x teleconverter on. I'll put the camera on my tripod just to make things easier. I'll play around with settings. When the moon is full under normal conditions you need a faster shutter speed as it is so bright. Since I'm using the tripod I may try to make a time lapse image.

This could be fun.
 
I plan to try and get out to get something as well... we'll see how it goes, make sure you post whatever you manage to capture!
 
I never tried anything like this. Any pointers. The longer lens I have is 135 on my 7d. It's not a fast lens. I also have my 85mm canon and my trusty canon 24-70 2.8mm.

Can u guys give me some pointers if I actually crawl out of bed for this?

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards
 


Use your longest lens. It doesn't have to be fast. Tough to really say where exactly to start after that. Looking at pictures from previous lunar eclipse events the moon is a dark red. That being said... I'll probably start at f/5.6, 1/60 shutter and 400 ISO. From there you can up your ISO as needed. And/or lower your shutter speed. Use a tripod. This way if you do need to go lower on the shutter speed you'll be ok also if you wanted to merge photos later it will be easier.
 
I never tried anything like this. Any pointers. The longer lens I have is 135 on my 7d. It's not a fast lens. I also have my 85mm canon and my trusty canon 24-70 2.8mm.

Can u guys give me some pointers if I actually crawl out of bed for this?

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Maybe since your lens isn't super long you should try and find a spot that has interesting trees, or buildings you can work into the shot, the moon will be very small in your frame, so it might be a pretty boring photo otherwise. Also maybe scout out a spot outside of any major urban spots to cut down on light pollution.
 
I am going to try my Canon 70-200 with 1.4x on a Panasonic micro 4/3, the resulting 280mm should act like a 560mm! Since the Canon lens does not have an aperture ring it has to be set on a Canon body, then it retains the aperture it was set at. Manual focus too, on a micro 4.3 body with adapter.
 


Maybe since your lens isn't super long you should try and find a spot that has interesting trees, or buildings you can work into the shot, the moon will be very small in your frame, so it might be a pretty boring photo otherwise. Also maybe scout out a spot outside of any major urban spots to cut down on light pollution.

dude i'm rolling out of bed. . . setting up in my driveway. . . hope one of the coyotes don't eat me. . . snap off a few over my tree line for interest and then rolling back into bed! lol that's if i even get up. i was up for first day of trout today at 4 to get our spot and some goofballs were already there! tomorrow we are off to an spot where my uncle (who tells me today! helped stock with 1500 trout) to scout out a spot for later this week so another early morning. monday i got to get up at 6 to do adr's for october so tuesday AM might not even happen! lol

oh and we didn't get our spot and none of us didn't even catch a thing. i'm do darn tired it isn't funny! and all for nothing. oh and my uncle saying "how come you didn't come up the country we stocked the river behind the land with 1500 trout". . . so mad right now! lol
 
Most of these were at 200 mm. I wish I had put the kit 55 - 250 mm on but I decided to go with the 70 - 200 instead. With 3 more eclipses due in the next year or so, I might have to invest in the extender!

My settings were ISO 800, f/11 or f/13, 2 or 2.5 secs.


The moon rose in total eclipse in Melbourne. This is around 6.30 pm.








Around 6.40 pm







Around 7 pm....and the pinky red was being overshadowed by the bright moon coming out of the earth's shadow.







Around 7.05 pm; which is when I called time.









Saturn was also up in the sky.













As was Mars; at around 7 pm.










princess::upsidedow
 
Thanks for sharing those shots PrincessinOz! Nice job! :thumbsup2

We had rain overnight which spoiled any attempt to view the blood moon. :(
 
300mm. 3 seconds. f/7.1. ISO 400
DSC_1708-L.jpg
 
Awesome pics!!! Here are a few of mine.

About 2:45 am EDT, from south FL.

1277631_10203946927497841_3103351202917336952_o.jpg


Unfortunately this one is blurry because I don't have a remote... next purchase.

1617839_10203946928017854_6657747063015758985_o.jpg



Once the moon came out of the umbra.

10259045_10203946928577868_2774627513486940400_o.jpg


1602059_10203946929297886_5568543849761021096_o.jpg
 
I'm enjoying everyone's photos! It was below freezing here last night so I had no interest in venturing outdoors.
 
I have finally started stepping out and learning more about my camera to use Manual mode instead of Automatic and the programmed modes. This is also my first time trying night time photography. I have been lurking the Photography boards for a while and picked up a lot of good tips. I still have a lot to learn, but feel good about my first attempts.

Nikon D3200, ISO 100, f'/5.6, 5 sec, 200 mm.

 
Unfortunately this one is blurry because I don't have a remote... next purchase.

Nice shots Amy!

Until you get your remote, you can just use the time delay setting. It will accomplish the same thing..... especially since the moon tends to stand still long enough and doesn't need to smile. :)
 
Nice shots Amy!

Until you get your remote, you can just use the time delay setting. It will accomplish the same thing..... especially since the moon tends to stand still long enough and doesn't need to smile. :)

Normally, the moon is very bright and almost any lens can result in a fairly fast shutter speed and low ISO.

Last night's "blood red" moon was more of a challenge...my camera wanted a few seconds at ISO 100...really close to star photography. (I was glad I remembered my 10 second delay)


Its fun seeing the picture from "Oz" with Mars to the left of the moon. Our viewpoint from north of the equator, Mars was to the right of the moon.

BA40F885-2D98-4E06-A813-EC3C62F75661_zpsnckykwnh.jpg
 
Those are all nice shots everyone from the Eclipse Blood Moon.

I stayed up as well until 1:30am pacific time.

Here is my pic from last night.

ISO 200 f/13.0 6 sec 200mm
 
Nice shots Amy!

Until you get your remote, you can just use the time delay setting. It will accomplish the same thing..... especially since the moon tends to stand still long enough and doesn't need to smile. :)

Thanks!!

I totally thought of this in the shower this morning. :/ LOL Next time... if I don't have remote.
 
Normally, the moon is very bright and almost any lens can result in a fairly fast shutter speed and low ISO.

Last night's "blood red" moon was more of a challenge...my camera wanted a few seconds at ISO 100...really close to star photography. (I was glad I remembered my 10 second delay)


Its fun seeing the picture from "Oz" with Mars to the left of the moon. Our viewpoint from north of the equator, Mars was to the right of the moon.

BA40F885-2D98-4E06-A813-EC3C62F75661_zpsnckykwnh.jpg

Nice shot.

For future reference, keep in mind that the moon does move so you don't want a long exposure. If your using 100 ISO and the camera is telling you a long shutter speed, then up the ISO to get a shorter shutter speed.

I was very disappointed with Mother Nature Monday night/Tuesday morning. Our mostly cloudy forecast turned into all cloudy. I had no chance to view the moon even though I was armed and ready with my D300 with 70-300mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter.
 

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