LUNAR ECLIPSE
August 2007 - 15 photos
December 2011 - 6 photos
August 2007 - 15 photos
December 2011 - 6 photos
On the 28th of August, 2007, I got up bright and early... No... make that dark and early, like 2:30 in the morning. I wanted to photograph the Lunar Eclipse which started at 2:51 am. There were a lot of small clouds in the sky and they occasionally covered the moon. I was lucky to have a few moments now and then to get some photos. This wasn't a fast event, it took 3 hours and 33 minutes, so there were openings now and then before the moon changed very much, except towards the end. When the moon was recovering from the eclipse there were a lot more clouds and they were bigger, darker and didn't give me an opening as often.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow across the moon. You may notice that the part of the moon passing through the earth's shadow is reddish in color. It's called the Umbra and it is red because a little light from the sun is bent/refracted through the earth's atmosphere where the blue and green light waves are absorbed by the air, which leaves orange and red light that bleeds into the shadow.
21 photos
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I had a second chance on December 10th of 2011 to photograph another Lunar Eclipse. This one they said would be more colorful, but it would be quite close to dawn in my area. I was only able to photograph the first half, as the the moon was setting on the western horizon by the time the moon was fully covered. I was able to capture a lot more of the orange / red color this time.
The first eclipse photos were taken with my Canon EOS 20D, 8.2 Megapixel SLR Camera using my Canon EF 100-400mm IS Telephoto zoom lens. The lighter photos were taken at ISO 100 with fixed shutter speed set at 1/400th of a second. As the moon darkened I had to adjust the ISO upwards until reaching 3200 and the shutter speed slower, down to 1/30 of a second. The second eclipse was photographed with my Canon EOS 40D and a 500mm lens. I left the photos small because there was too much haze in the air bluring the photos.
These photos are set to lower resolution and compressed 10:1 for faster loading. You are welcome to look at or download any of the photos. If you use them on any other webpage, please give credit and refer back to me.
These photos are set to lower resolution and compressed 10:1 for faster loading. You are welcome to look at or download any of the photos. If you use them on any other webpage, please give credit and refer back to me.