Tonight's Lunar Eclipse
by
, 12-21-2010 at 02:49 AM (3233 Views)
It appears to be a rare event when we get a full lunar eclipse this time of year, according to this news story:
http://news.lalate.com/2010/12/20/lu...stice-history/
So I was ready to see this event in person, since it could be hundreds of years before it comes around again. heh And I did what I could with my camera, which wasn't cooperating like I'd hoped. I ended up using my 35mm f/1.8 lens, a remote trigger, set the ISO to 3200, and varied the time from 1/6 of a second to 1/3200 of a second. It took some guesswork and about 70 images but I liked these the best.
12:14am
1:08am
1:16am
2:02am
2:05am
2:11am
With the moon blocked out, the orange hue was obvious. And all the stars came out because of the lack of moonlight to wash out the sky. I have a telescope that I pull out about once a year, but I really need to get with some astronomy peoples to learn how to use the darn thing. It's pretty frustrating to use, especially when you don't have a lot of time to target the subject like tonight.
This eclipse was predicted to last 76 minutes. It still in progress at the moment. Temperature is 60F but feels colder, somewhat windy, and we have some light clouds in the sky.