Last nights Lunar Eclipse from San Diego, ...

[aggiesal]

I needed to reduce the exposure time on the first few, because you
could really see all the detail with the naked eye.
In other words, the detail that you see in the red moons could be seen
with the white moons.

I used a 500mm lens with manual focus. As it got darker, I had to
place the camera on a tripod.

Any suggestions on night photography would be greatly appreciated.
Enjoy.

[quiet.american]

1. Thanks for posting! n/t

[begin_within]

2. Cool - thanks

[SeattleGirl]

3. Thanks! I tried staying up for it, but just couldn't manage it. n/t

[H2O Man]

4. Nominated!

Thank you for posting these! Very nice. Very nice, indeed. I was awake, and wanted to get out to view this, but was not able to. So I really do appreciate you posting these photos.

[BOSSHOG]

5. Great Pictures, thanks very much

It was a beautiful site about 4:30 this morning in south Mississippi.

It doesn't look like you need any hints. I do recall a guest lecturer in journalism school a long, long time ago saying that the key to good photography is a lot of film, various exposures and a quick clicker finger. He said for every one picture that gets published or gets the oohhs and aahhs, a hundred end up in the trash. That worked for me, way back before I had to have autofocus. Digital photography has made that a rather inexpensive method.

[aggiesal]

14. Bits are cheap :)

Yes I took alot, and these were the best.

I'm still trying to learn my new camera.
The first few are a little over exposed. The detail
in the red moons, could be seen with the naked eye on
the white moons, which you can't see because of the
over-exposure.

The lens is not auto focus, so I constantly had
to refocus when the moon would move from the center
of the viewfinder.

I then had to switch to a tripod when the images
started to get really dark, and the shutter was staying
open between 20-30 seconds.
You'll see a little artifacts at the bottom of some of
the pictures due to this.

[Bjornsdotter]

6. K & R

...wonderful photos!

:toast:

[leftchick]

7. Now I don't feel like I missed it!

Thank you! Excellent job!

:)

[liberal N proud]

8. Woke up at 5:00 AM EST time to see it.

Thanks for the pics

[haele]

9. Thanks - we saw it from our backyard last night -

Our little Fuji digital camera just couldn't telephoto enough to get more than a little dot in the middle of the screen.

We're on a canyon off downtown San Diego, so we turned off all the lights and managed to get a very nice view despite the ambient city glow.

Haele

[aggiesal]

12. Scripps Ranch. My neighborhood was nice an dark. n/t

[Colorado Progressive]

10. Thanks! It rained all night here nt

[The Count]

11. This east coaster is grateful! My kid was disappointed that our time was 6:30AM

So, at least I have something to show!

[L. Coyote]

13. From atop Marys Peak, Oregon Cascades

The full moon rose off the south flank of Mount Bachelor, then the sun set far out over the Pacific, with perfect green flash terminal light.

The sky was clear for the eclipse, and the air quite cool.

[RestoreGore]

15. These are fantastic photographs.Thank you.

[glitch]

16. Awesome, thanks for sharing. I stopped and stared at the incredible moon last night before bed

I completely forgot it was eclipse night.

[DCKit]

17. Blood on the moon much? Any werewolf attacks in your neighborhood last night? nt

[DarbyUSMC]

18. Outstanding, thank you so much.

[renate]

19. beautiful!

Thank you so much!

[Subdivisions]

20. I actually rose at 4am just to watch this eclipse here in TX and

it was SPECTACULAR!

Thanks so much for the pics!

[aggiesal]

21. I forgot this last one! Enjoy n/t

[symbolman]

22. Mars would be more appropriate for Bush

The planet of War..

Watched it at a decent time here in Hawaii and with no real light pollution - the good old Milky Way graces the sky here as well.. We were trying to take digital photos through a binocular :)

Didn't work so its nice to see this set, good job, thanks!

[immoderate]

23. Exposure notes...

It's simple... the full moon gets the same exposure as anything else illuminated by direct sunlight at noon. (Anything longer will overexpose.)

If you're familiar with ASA or ISO numbers, the f/16 rule applies: Exposure at an aperture of f/16 in bright sunlight is 1/ASA seconds. Example if you have ASA 400 film, the bright sunlight shutter setting for f/16 is 1/400 of a second, or whatever is close. Digital cameras may not allow you set shutter and aperture or limit the settings. You may have to dig info out of the manual.

--IMM

[aggiesal]

24. It's a new camera, and I don't know how to manipulate all the settings ...

With the white moon, I was getting exposures at around 490 ASA.
The f stop ring was sitting pretty close to infinity.

At least that's was the camera was indicating.
Even looking at the photo through the LCD, I felt like it was
getting overexposed, but I couldn't figure out how to reduce
the exposure time.

Then it got dark and this solved some of my problems naturally.
I still would have liked to get a decent white moon photo.

Thanks for the help.

[immoderate]

25. Infinity is a focus thing. Sounds right for the moon.

ASA is a setting to tell the meter how sensitive your film is. On digital cameras, it may be an equivalent. You may not easily be able to determine aperture (f-stops) on a digital. That's the lens opening.

Enjoy your new toy. Read the book. :)

On edit: The DU photo group has very knowledgeable people.

--IMM

[DemReadingDU]

26. Awesome pics!

I was able to see the eclipse, I'm in Ohio. I was walking around my neighborhood at 5:30am to 6am. Fist I saw a small white crescent, then the entire moon turned sort of an orange color. It was a neat thing!

[Trillo]

27. Thanks here as well.

I was deep asleep during the eclipse.... I've never seen one turn red before! Great photos.

[aggiesal]

28. Just wanted to say Thanks for all the kind words. Really appreciate it . n/t