Lunar eclipse

What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar eclipse next
Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with something
that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a A5 or A4, either.

jue

J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar eclipse next
Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with something
that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a A5 or A4, either.

It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.

--
Chris Malcolm DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Chris Malcolm wrote:
J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar
eclipse next Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with
something that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a
A5 or A4, either.

It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.

Although shots which include the landscape at the same time, or form a
time-lapse sequence, will not require the moon to fill the picture and
therefore not require such a telephoto lens.

There are some examples of and links to moon shots with both DSLR and
small-sensor cameras here, including one eclipse shot:

http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/imaging/moon.htm

David

On Feb 14, 1:59 am, Jürgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar eclipse next
Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with something
that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a A5 or A4, either.

jue

You'll need a 2000mm to fill the frame on a 35mm frame, 1333mm for a
1.5 crop sensor. The best way to get really good images is to take
multiple exposures and combine them using software like Registax.
This increase the signal to noise ratio in favour of "signal."
Exposure times will range from 1/1000 sec at the beginning of the
eclipse to about 3-4 seconds at peak eclipse, based on using an f5.6 -
f8 lens.

On Feb 14, 4:52 am, "David J Taylor" -
this-bit.nor-this-bit.co.uk wrote:
Chris Malcolm wrote:
J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar
eclipse next Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with
something that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a
A5 or A4, either.

It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.

Although shots which include the landscape at the same time, or form a
time-lapse sequence, will not require the moon to fill the picture and
therefore not require such a telephoto lens.

There are some examples of and links to moon shots with both DSLR and
small-sensor cameras here, including one eclipse shot:

http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/imaging/moon.htm

David

Should add, because the moon requires longer exposures (seconds) at
peak eclipse when the disk of the moon is totally in shadow, some kind
of telescope type drive is needed to offset the motion of the moon in
the sky. A good, cheap one can be bought here.Those mounts will hold
a decent sized camera-lens.
https://www.ioptron.com/merchantmana....php?cPath=1_7

On Feb 14, 1:59*am, Jürgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar eclipse next
Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with something
that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a A5 or A4, either.

jue

This will be up for a little bit...
http://www.pbase.com/shootin/image/92940488
Done with the Canon 70-200mm and film though, March 3, 2007

400mm or longer lens is better.
Remember you are shooting a subject illuminated by the sun :-)
Faster shutter speeds are better as it is moving at a pretty good
clip.
Decide if you are shooting the illuminated part or the dark part of
the moon and expose for that.
1/2 second exposure is going to show some motion blur.
Let the camera body and lens acclimate to the outside temperature
before you go shooting; keep the batteries in your pocket until you
are ready to shoot if it is cold outside.
Focusing is going to be a pain, check your results often.

Have fun.

David J Taylor wrote:
Chris Malcolm wrote:
J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar
eclipse next Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with
something that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a
A5 or A4, either.
It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.

Although shots which include the landscape at the same time, or form a
time-lapse sequence, will not require the moon to fill the picture and
therefore not require such a telephoto lens.

Here's some studies of trying to set up a shot like that for this
eclipse: http://edgehill.net/temp/eclipse/pg1pc2
The odd thing is that sort of look needs to be 'faked'. Partly because
the exposure for the landscape will be much longer than to get the moon,
and the exposure for the eclipse moment is yet another. Probably the
smartest way is to take a record landscape shot wide angle and use a
telephoto with bracketed exposures for the rest.

There are some examples of and links to moon shots with both DSLR and
small-sensor cameras here, including one eclipse shot:

http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/imaging/moon.htm

Here's one I did like that but with a manual HDR merging to show the
dark & light: http://edgehill.net/Misc/misc-photos...eclipse/pg1pc3

RichA wrote:
On Feb 14, 4:52 am, "David J Taylor" -
this-bit.nor-this-bit.co.uk wrote:
Chris Malcolm wrote:
J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar
eclipse next Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with
something that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a
A5 or A4, either.
It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.
Although shots which include the landscape at the same time, or form a
time-lapse sequence, will not require the moon to fill the picture and
therefore not require such a telephoto lens.

There are some examples of and links to moon shots with both DSLR and
small-sensor cameras here, including one eclipse shot:

http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/imaging/moon.htm

David

Should add, because the moon requires longer exposures (seconds) at
peak eclipse when the disk of the moon is totally in shadow, some kind
of telescope type drive is needed to offset the motion of the moon in
the sky. A good, cheap one can be bought here.Those mounts will hold
a decent sized camera-lens.
https://www.ioptron.com/merchantmana....php?cPath=1_7

This is 600mm 2 seconds ISO 100, exposure boosted from RAW by 2 stops:
http://edgehill.net/Misc/misc-photos...eclipse/pg1pc1
I could have boosted the ISO but didn't think of it, I was trying many
combinations of settings. Another way would be to stack several shorter
exposures but a 1 or 2 second exposure isn't too much motion really.

On Feb 14, 3:26 pm, Paul Furman wrote:
RichA wrote:
On Feb 14, 4:52 am, "David J Taylor" -
this-bit.nor-this-bit.co.uk wrote:
Chris Malcolm wrote:
J?rgen Exner wrote:
What equipment would you need to get a decend shot of the lunar
eclipse next Wednesday?
Not looking for professional level, but won't be satisfied with
something that looks like just a speckle of dust when printed on a
A5 or A4, either.
It's about 2,000 miles across and about 1/4 million miles away. Decide
how many pixels across its width you want in your image, divide that
into how many you've got in your camera, and multiply the moon's
subtended angle by that to give you the field of view angle you need
in the telephoto lens.
Although shots which include the landscape at the same time, or form a
time-lapse sequence, will not require the moon to fill the picture and
therefore not require such a telephoto lens.

There are some examples of and links to moon shots with both DSLR and
small-sensor cameras here, including one eclipse shot:

http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/imaging/moon.htm

David

Should add, because the moon requires longer exposures (seconds) at
peak eclipse when the disk of the moon is totally in shadow, some kind
of telescope type drive is needed to offset the motion of the moon in
the sky. A good, cheap one can be bought here.Those mounts will hold
a decent sized camera-lens.
https://www.ioptron.com/merchantmana....php?cPath=1_7

This is 600mm 2 seconds ISO 100, exposure boosted from RAW by 2 stops:http://edgehill.net/Misc/misc-photos...eclipse/pg1pc1
I could have boosted the ISO but didn't think of it, I was trying many
combinations of settings. Another way would be to stack several shorter
exposures but a 1 or 2 second exposure isn't too much motion really.

Stacking is good for a couple reasons. The Moon has a tendency to
produce a noisy looking image, even at low ISO. The brightness range
except at total eclipse is huge across the Moon's face, so stacking
will improve SN ratios. This is a perfect opportunity for HDR types
to really do some good!

I think this time I'll try for 3-5 shots per set and stack them. If I
can coordinate it all, I'll also shoot the multiple image thing using
digital and film. This of course means hoping the weather for the
last 5 months does a 180 and the skies are clear!

388mm apo telescope with an Olympus E-330. JPEG. 1.3 seconds f5.6.
http://www.pbase.com/andersonrm/image/84629285

Paul Furman wrote:
[]
Here's some studies of trying to set up a shot like that for this
eclipse: http://edgehill.net/temp/eclipse/pg1pc2
[]
Here's one I did like that but with a manual HDR merging to show the
dark & light:
http://edgehill.net/Misc/misc-photos...eclipse/pg1pc3

Thanks for those, Paul. Fascinating!

David