Lunar Eclipse 28th Sept 2015

[Kenny]

In an attempt to avoid the huge bank of cloud forecast to head across the south of England, that never actually arrived ( ), Rachel and I joined forces and drove to Claines near Worcester to be sure of clear skies for the entirety of the eclipse. Found a site in the middle of a golf driving range and pitch n putt which unfortunately also suffered from incredibly bad, tidal, ground level mist throughout the night causing a great deal of camera/lens dew. The other problem we discovered was that when the intervalometer was running the camera wouldn't let me adjust ISO, aperture and exposure settings so I had to abondon that and switch to manually timing each shot with the timer on my phone... beep beep beep beep beep beep every 4 minutes (I didn't get to sit down on the camping chair I had brought with me all night)!!!

Two camera's set up. These are my static timelapse results from the 650D and battery kit I borrowed from Rachel (she used my 450D with conventional battery) - I wanted 2 batteries running to be sure I got the whole sequence.

51 individual shots at a variety of ISOs, apertures and exposures to capture the brightest and darkest phases of the eclipse but the majority centred around ISO 800 at f/8. 4 minute intervals from 02:15am to 05:41am. Canon 650D with my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens (schoolboy error, should have used my 18-200mm @ 18mm). 3 batches of shots i.e. camera moved 3 times. Combined into a single sequence. Plans to make this into a pretty collage when I have more time.

One advantage of the 50mm, apart from the fact that it dewed up far less than Rachel's 200mm, is that at 100% the image of each individual Moon is far better than it would have been at 18mm, tho still quite grainy.



Full size version here. (it's BIG, very BIG)

[MarkS]

A good set of images Kenny.  And what dedication to obtaining them!

You're right - it is very big.  It makes it a difficult to fully appreciate it.

Mark

[julian]

Very nice Kenny

[Carole]

It looks like a real work of dedication Kenny, I can't open the large file it keeps crashing google chrome, maybe that's because it is so big 

Great presentation. 

As we all discovered we had to keep changing the exposure settings throughout - I made my life even more difficult by trying to take different exposures for the bright bit and the eclipsed bit so I could combine which meant changing the exposure back and forth.  As it turned out combining them didn't work anyway, so that was a real waste of effort.

It was certainly a marathon and well done you for travelling so far and staying up for the duration.  Did you drive back the same night or stop at a B&B?

Carole

[The Thing]

Hi Kenny,

Absolutely excellent set of images, what commitment! I only had to go 50m down the garden. In the old old days you used to be able to take multiple exposures on on film frame (with the right camera), shame digital cameras won't let you do that as sequences like this would be much easier.

[RachelC]

Thanks Kenny. The description of the event was very accurate!  The photo time lapse of amazing, well done. That must have taken ages.
I managed to open the 'Big' version and it looks even more impressive.
I have 112 images to go through and pull out the best ones to put something together.
Watch this space 

[Kenny]

Sequence animated. A lot more work to do that than I expected...

[MarkS]

That's looking good Kenny.

I know it's a lot of work - I'm still working on mine!

Mark

[Fay]

Yes such dedication kenny.

You are like a nomad, always off somewhere doing things!!

[JohnP]

Looks good Kenny - took me long enough to present 6 images - couldn't imagine doing a whole timelapse... John

[RobertM]

Very impressive Kenny,  as is your dedication.

The collage will be one to watch out for, I'll keep watch for that.

Robert

[Carole]

Well done Kenny.
yes for those of us that have done it, it was a LOT of work, spent much of the week doing it.

Carole

[Kenny]

Thanks for all the comments. I was determined not to miss this event and now I have to put the hours in to reap the results, as we all do.

The colour didn't come out on the animation as much as it did on the original image. Not sure why - possibly a processing error I've introduced.

My collage is complete. I just need to 'clean' the noise and stars out as the layers overlap. Hope to be able to post later today.

[Mac]

very nice montage,
Especially the full sized one.

Mac