[Tingchaleun]

According to the University of Calgary,

Umbral Eclipse 6:43 pm
Totality begins 8:01 pm to 8:51 pm
Event ends 10 pm

The next total eclipse will occur in 2010

OR>>
for a better, a more comprehensive time schedule, check out:
Shadow & Substance Home Page


Any ideas or tips on how to get a great picture of this phenomenon? I want to adequately prepare, because if i don't capture it, the next one is in 2010!

Thanks.

[blende8]

Don't overexpose.
The full moon is very bright.
There is an old rule: f16 and 1/ISO for the full moon.

- shoot RAW
- bracket the exposure

[garth1948]

All we get in Western Australia is a full moon.
Wanted to use the new constant f2.8 zoom on an eclipse series.
Oh well, next time.

Garth

[christinelandon]

Don't overexpose.
The full moon is very bright.
There is an old rule: f16 and 1/ISO for the full moon.

- shoot RAW
- bracket the exposure

I've had good results with f/8 @ 1/125th seconds using ISO 100 for full moon telephoto exposures; you'll want to open up/lengthen exposure time/raise ISO as the eclipse develops. Bracket your exposures as you go, as Wieland recommends. Use your histogram to assist your adjustments, sez I.

We're going to be cloudy Wednesday night here in Seattle, so, could you share your results, please?

[cindaaalynnn]

We're going to be cloudy Wednesday night here in Seattle, so, could you share your results, please?

As in I in San Diego, or so I heard. It's suppose to be raining this upcoming week =[

[garth1948]

Full moon photo about 30 minutes ago from here in Perth.
K100D Tamron 18-200 f16, 1/160, 200mm.
Note - NO clouds and NO eclipse.




Garth

[egarrard]

Note - NO clouds and NO eclipse.

Sadly, it looks like Tennessee is getting lots of the former so none of the latter. And it's a perfect evening eclipse too.

[vizjerei]

... A few flurries and partly cloudy in Toronto.. not to mention feel like -17c

[Gimbal]

That will be about 4.30 in the morning here. Ouch.

[travis_cooper]

Last time it was 4:30 in the morning for me. This time 8 at night, it should be much better. Although I'm not so sure about this next time it will happen will be in 2010. It happened twice last year. I remember last February reading threads like this and it said it would be a long time before it happened again. Then in August it happened, and again they said it would be a couple years before it happened again. Now it is February and we will get another chance to see it. Is it really going to be until 2010 before another one? Anyway, I plan to get some shots, hopefully I will improve on what I got last time around.

[LeoTaylor]

Travis,

Lunar eclipses come in bursts of 3-4. The next total eclipse is indeed 2010.

Here is NASA's eclipse page:
NASA - Eclipse Home Page
Scroll down to, "Table and World Maps of Lunar Eclipses: 2001:2010"

The difficulty of photographing a lunar eclipse is the dynamic range is so wide. This will be my first attempt with a DSLR, but I have photographed many lunar eclipses with a Nikon Coolpix. Exposures at Full Moon were around 1/250th second. Exposures at Totality were 8 seconds. At 8 seconds at 400mm I needed a motorized mount but if you use a modest FL lens you might be OK. I don't think the even 12 bit Pentax RAW format can't handle that kind of brightness range so I expect to have to change exposure as the event proceeds. But, then the totality appears unnaturally bright. Maybe I'll adjust exposures as needed then fix the relative brightness with software?

Only minutes before totality the crescent Moon is much brighter than the surface of the dark section. So you need a very sudden exposure change when totality is reached.

Be sure to catch the Earthshine, the dark part of the Moon will be lit by a glow bright enough to see details on the surface.

Unfortunately we are scheduled for clouds but I will go out just in case!

[ryan s]

The clouds might clear out, but it's supposed to be -5F with some wind too I was looking forward to it...if it was 35F or above I would go out there. It's just dangerous to be outside for too long...

I'm in a perfect spot too...3 blocks away is Lake Michigan to my east

[m8o]

Any ideas or tips on how to get a great picture of this phenomenon? I want to adequately prepare, because if i don't capture it, the next one is in 2010!

Pretty informative:
How to Photograph a Lunar Eclipse
(especially the 'Lunar Eclipse Exposure Guide' table about 1/2-way down)


I read this eclipse is going to get down to a Danjon value of 1.1 so if you want to catch totality, that's some long exposures; blurry if you're not tracking the moon by some mechanism.

[travis_cooper]

I remember last August trying to decide on what part was more important, because the dynamic range is so large. As the moon is being eclipsed if you expose for the moon it just looks like the moon on any old day, almost like getting an entire month's worth of shots in one night. If you expose for the orange in the part that is being eclipsed the rest of the moon is completely blown out. It looks like most people try to expose for the moon, until it is almost, or completely, eclipsed. I guess there is enough time to exose both ways and see which is better. Maybe an HDR shot might be in order, I'll have to give it a try. Has anybody tried this with multiple exposures on the K10D? Does it work? It seems like even with multiple exposures the un-eclipsed part would still be completely blown out.

[LeoTaylor]

m80,

Nice resource! They list the eclipses to 2020 and you can see the pattern of 3-4 totals at a time. Unfortunately it looks like 2 of 3 around 2010 are not visible in my location.

I really hope the weather people are wrong tomorrow. This is a rare treat to have the entire eclipse high in the sky during Prime Time. Usually we only see 1/2 the eclipse cycle due to sunrise or sunset during totality.

This crescent was taken during the March 2007 eclipse with a CoolPix at 4 seconds. Unfortunately the totality shots at the 8 second maximum came out too dark. I'm hoping to do better with the Pentax.

I need to correct an error I made in the previous post. Earthshine illuminates the dark side of a "normal" crescent Moon. During an eclipse the red/orange glow comes from light passing through Earth's atmosphere. As soon as I saw this photo I realized this is not Earthshine.