 The
last total lunar eclipse was four years ago, and I shot that the best I could
with a handheld Sony Mavica camera. I did marginally okay with that, most of the
shots were blurry, but I pulled off at least a few that I was happy with, but
I'd been looking forward to the next total eclipse since I bought, first a
tripod, and then the new Nikon a few years back, thinking I could get some
terrific shots, based on the pics I'd been able to shoot of the moon using just
the camera and the tripod since then. Assuming the weather cooperated.
I was in a car just before sunset on Saturday, and I'm looking back to see
where the sun was going down and where the resulting shadow of the car was to
see where approximately the moon would be rising, and wouldn't you know it, a
monster wall of clouds was starting right at that exact spot, running the whole
length of the horizon on that side. Not a cloud in the sky anywhere else, just
exactly where the moon was supposed to rise. Needless to say I was worried. I've
been waiting 4 years to get some great pics of a total eclipse, and the Raleigh
sky was appearing to once again be not cooperative. (I've missed out on two
partial solar eclipses and the Venus transit before because the weather here was
conspiring against me.)
But we were patient. Sat out in the car in a reasonably empty field keeping our
eyes peeled for any sign of a dark orange moon to finally show up. It was
supposed to start at something like 6:03. 6:15 came around. Nothing. 6:30...
nothing. Then finally a hint of orange peeks through the cloud, I scramble out
of the car, set up the tripod, and start snapping. And can't figure out why
nothing is in focus. DOH! Turn off auto focus and set it to infinity. Ahhh, much
better. Snapped a pile of shots until the need for a bathroom break becomes
slightly more important, so we head for home, figuring that the moon would be
high enough by then to see over the house next door from the yard.
It WAS, except that I was having to shoot through a bunch of really irritating
branches (this is Raleigh, City of Oaks, and we - and most everyone on the block
- has at least 10 to 12 oak trees in their yards. Makes for NO astronomy in the
summer, too many leaves to shoot through, and very tricky astronomy in the
winter due to the branches AND the temps). Finally found a spot in the front
yard of my next door neighbor's house that was a completely tree-free view for
most of the run of the eclipse.
So there I parked it until about 8:15, until I wasn't picking up any signs of
shadow on the moon anymore, which was timed very nicely since by then, my
fingers were about frozen and I couldn't feel the buttons to set the 3 second
timer and tweak the shutter speed anymore.
So I've GOT pictures. Yay. I set them for multiple exposure lengths (anywhere
from 8 seconds to 1/500th of a second), and various zoom magnifications (say
what you will about "digital zoom" not being nearly as good as a straight
optical zoom option, being able to go all the way to 40X for something like this
DOES come in handy.) And made good use of the self timer - less camera jiggle
when you set a three second timer to go off by itself, vs hitting the shutter
release manually.
And the results? Check them out. I know I'M pretty happy with them. :D
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