Eclipse scheduling

[snopes]

Comment: Via internet radio, I heard this story from an astronomer at a
South Carolina planetarium.

The planetarium and a local astronomy club held a viewing of a lunar
eclipse on a Thursday evening, an event that made the newspaper on the
next morning. The planetarium received a series of complaints from
parents who could not understand why the eclipse viewing was held on a
school night that prevented students from attending. They demanded to
know why the eclipse was not held on the weekend when their children
could stay up late. The response caught the planetarium off guard. Amused,
the planetarium advised the parents to write contact their congressman.
The congressman's office than contacted the planetarium in an attempt to
find out why they were receiving calls that insisted that lunar eclipses
be held on weekends.

[Richard W]

I'm glad they sorted the problem, anyway. The lunar eclipse this Saturday was timed perfectly so that it reached totality as I was walking home from the cinema after seeing Pan's Labyrinth. Who says the US congress never does anything useful?

[UEL]

And the good work of the congress spills beyond the borders of the US. After taking the family to see Bridge to Terabithia we made our customary stop at Tim Horton's for hot chocolate and tea. We got an eyeful of the moon, or parts thereof, at that time.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by Richard W

I'm glad they sorted the problem, anyway. The lunar eclipse this Saturday was timed perfectly so that it reached totality as I was walking home from the cinema after seeing Pan's Labyrinth. Who says the US congress never does anything useful?

I presume what you saw was this..... (I would have posted earlier but it took me bloody hours to cut all the little moons out!)

[Chloe]

Oh wow, thank you! So beautiful! Don't tell SO, who drags me to the ends of the earth to see solar eclipses, but I really really like the lunar ones better.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Oh wow, thank you! So beautiful! Don't tell SO, who drags me to the ends of the earth to see solar eclipses, but I really really like the lunar ones better.

Thank you!

A bit of ego stroking made it worth the effort!

I'm glad it came out o.k, I was quite drunk by totallity!!!

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Hans Off

Thank you!

A bit of ego stroking made it worth the effort!

I'm glad it came out o.k, I was quite drunk by totallity!!!

That's brilliant - did you take all those pictures yourself?

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by Richard W

That's brilliant - did you take all those pictures yourself?

Yep!

Nikon D50 with Sigma 300mm zoom, exposures ranging from 1/100 at ISO 200 to 2 seconds (for totallity) at ISO 1800

[Jay Tea]

Smart handiwork Hans'

We'd spoken about shooting the eclipse with DSLRs through my telescope but I didn't get my sh*t together, and we watched events unfold from the boozer

[Hans Off]

Yes the Booze was part of the creative process

Thank got for tripods otherwise by the time it gor to totallity the last 4 shots would have been orange smears!

[jw]

Excellent work, Hans off.

I tried to take some digi shots, but they wern't up to scratch.

Thanks for putting them here.
My son was looking for some for school. Would you mind if I snagged this?

[Hans Off]

No problem JW

Do you want a larger version?

[Troberg]

Others have said it, but I have to chime in. Excellent shots, Hans!

You shot them without any filters? I've found that usung a ND filter and slightly longer exposure sometimes helps reduce the bleeding of light from a strong light source in an otherwise dark scene. Your images are so crisp, I find it hard to imagine them shot without any optical assistance.

[Hans Off]

thanks Troberg

Bear in mind that they were only shot with a 300mm lense to the actual moon sphere covered about 10% of the frame!

So exposing for the area in shadow produced the massive flare on the sunlit areas on Moons 5, 9 and 10

(counting from the beginning of the sequence)

I contemplated cheating and comping together two exposures (one light and one dark) at the time but decided against it for now..

I see what you are saying about using an ND filter (If I had a much longer lens), but it would have to be pretty heavy as the difference between light and dark is between 1/100 sec ISO 200 on the light and 2 seconds ISO1800 on the dark!


At around £60 for a decent ND filter i don't think I can afford enough stacked up to do the job!

[jw]

Originally Posted by Hans Off

No problem JW

Do you want a larger version?

Awesome. Thanks for sending me the larger version. I'll print it out and it'll probably make the school library if that's ok. I'll credit you at the bottom of the print. I tried to take pics, but the sky over the city was way too bright to get anything near what you got. I should've gone to Wexford last weekend.

[HollowMan]

I swear, I swear we're not all like that.

[Troberg]

I see what you are saying about using an ND filter (If I had a much longer lens), but it would have to be pretty heavy as the difference between light and dark is between 1/100 sec ISO 200 on the light and 2 seconds ISO1800 on the dark!

At around £60 for a decent ND filter i don't think I can afford enough stacked up to do the job!

Good point. I've said it before, I find the moon a very difficult subject to photograph.

That said, I still love my ND filter (even though it was a mere 200 kr ($30)). There are some shots that really need it, such as this: http://rpglab.net/nobackup/IMG_1219.JPG (large image).

[Hans Off]

Yeah, I have been meaning to get myself some ND filters for a while now for those "moody sky" landscapes!

I still love that pic Troberg