Total Lunar Eclipse

[Illuminati]

Get your coffee and your tripod ready, because there's a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning (starting around 1:51AM Pacific Daylight Time). People on the west coast will have a 3 hour vantage time, with totality occurring between 2:52 to 3:23 AM PDT. East coasters can still view the eclipse, but they will only have around a 30 minute window, as the moon will be setting fast with the sun rising.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=23365

- Jason

[mtngal]

Thanks for the extra information - guess I could get up at 3 and still get some good pictures. I'd only lose one hour of sleep, and if I had everything more or less set up the night before, it might work. Or maybe I'll depend on you to get up that early and take pictures?

[Keithw]

If possible leave your camera outside the previous evening. I have read that taking the camera out of a warm house in to a cool/cold night can mean that there is a minute amount of heat haze (or something) coming off the lens which can muck-up the photos.

Don't know how true this is because I got my camera a matter of days before a lunar eclipse here in the UK so I'm not sure whether poor results were due to this problem, my newness with camera, cheap/lightweight tripod, crappy (now replaced) lens.

Good luck if you do get up early


Keith

[ccallana]

I've been thinking about getting up - but dang thats early! should just set the camera up, point it somewhere close and have it click pictures every minute all night long

[mtngal]

Keith - that's good advice for most people. However, it'll only be about 10-20 F degrees difference between inside and out, and our humidity will be probably somewhere around 20% - not enough for much condensation. If I get up I'd just leave the camera mounted on the tripod indoors, then relocate it to the backyard. I should be able to get some reasonable shots, given the conditions where I live. It's just that my sister is supposed to arrive tonight and that usually means a late night, so we'll see...

[bper]

Our local astronomy club is having an all nighter at one of the membershomes and I plan to be there. Most likely we will catch a little shut-eye in sleeping bags until about 2:30.

The total part of the eclipse is suppose to be from 2:52 am until 4:22 am here in Yakima, Washington. It will be one of the longest and best eclipsesthat we have had in along time in the Northwest. The Moon will be well placed almost straight South as the Eclipse begins. The skies are predicted to be completely clear all over the state, so hopes are high. The Goldendale Observatory in South Central Washingtonis staying open all night also.

I'm going to try it with my 50-200mm and a tripod. Since I will have 90 minutes of totality, I can experiment a little. Hopefully, we will get a pretty orange Moon. I'll post any good ones I get tomorrow, but it may be later after I catch up on my sleep. Wish me luck - Bruce

[Black Knight]

You guys on the West Coast are lucky. We here in the east will only get to see about a half hour, before the Suns rises. I am Going To see if i can Get somthing, As I am up at that time of the morning (I start work at 6AM). The only issue for me will be all the hills around were i Live

Phil

[mtngal]

I hope someone else did better than I did. I just woke up (no alarm, wasn't going to get up early) so went out and took some. Tried various shutter speeds, aperture, 2 sec. lock-up, various ISOs and they are all horrible! Hope others did better than that.

[Illuminati]

My creative juices weren't flowing; my mind stops working at around 9PM. I made an effort though by going to Pismo Beach to try and get some reflection shots, but the moon was too high for me to do anything useful. I'll post anything if I am still hyped enough from the coffee to edit at this ungodly hour.

- Jason

[Illuminati]

Was able to keep myself awake enough to edit one photo. This was minutes before totality:



- Jason