Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday

**Schneiderlein** · 02-17-2008, 00:57

From the NASA website at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...nareclipse.htm

On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.

The Sun goes down. The Moon comes up. You go out and look at the sky. Observing the eclipse is that easy. Maximum eclipse, and maximum beauty, occurs at 10:26 pm EST (7:26 pm PST).

Who will be watching it from the comfort of their hammock?

**slowhike** · 02-17-2008, 07:32

10:26 EST, that's easy enough. thanks for pointing that out.
i'm going to try to remember to do that.

**Kanguru** · 02-17-2008, 07:54

That's cool. Thanks for the post. Hope the weather will cooperate. Shucks...just checked. Cloudy.

**headchange4u** · 02-17-2008, 10:38

Cool beans. I just got a Canon Rebel XTI DSLR camera. I have wanted one for years and I bought it right before my heat pump went out. I almost had to take it back. I still haven't figured out all the bells and whistles. There was a beautiful moon-bow last night and I wish I had read up on my night photography so I could have gotten a pic of it. Maybe the weather will cooperate and I can get a pic of the eclipse.

Are any of you guys photographers and can give me some pointers on taking a pic like that?

**angrysparrow** · 02-17-2008, 10:48

Originally Posted by headchange4u

Are any of you guys photographers and can give me some pointers on taking a pic like that?

A tripod (or other secure mounting rig) is necessary, and it wouldn't hurt to use a timer, or remote, to trigger the shutter.

Long shutter times are needed, obviously. Start with about 2 seconds and go from there.

The aperture you use will depend on your lens. For most prosumer stuff, try a setting of about 5.6

Medium ISO values will be fine for such a long shutter speed. You shouldn't have to go above ISO 600, but I'd start at ISO 400.

If your camera has any exposure bracketing capability, that will make all this very very easy. Just use these settings as a guideline, and let the camera take a series of photos at different exposures.

Good Luck!

**headchange4u** · 02-17-2008, 10:55

I do have a tripod and I have the parts and will soon finish building a DIY remote with a toggle switch that is supposed to hold the shutter open until the toggle is flipped off. The toggle switch in the DIY remote is there for night photography.

I have an 18-55mm lens and a 75-300mm lens. Best choice?

I don't know about exposure bracketing. I'll read through the manual and see. Thanks for the tips.

**angrysparrow** · 02-17-2008, 11:17

Originally Posted by headchange4u

I have an 18-55mm lens and a 75-300mm lens. Best choice?

It depends on what you want in the frame. If you're trying pics of a swath of the night sky, use the 18-55. If you want a closer crop of the eclipse itself, use the 75-300 zoom.

I mentioned the lens when I spoke about aperture because many lenses are variable aperture (their max is different at differing zoom levels). So, if your lens has an aperture limitation at a given zoom, you'd wind up using a longer shutter speed to compensate. For learning this, you should use the Shutter priority mode of your camera. That will let you choose the shutter speed, and the camera will then choose the rest of the exposure settings for you. Then, you can look at the images you take (and the exposures settings used for them) to get a feel for what you need in different situations.

BTW, I'm not a photographer. But, I've been an amateur shutterbug for a few years.