There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls! - George Carlin
I bet yesterday was one such night when the moon was howling! A beaver blood moon - should have been a lovely complete orb in all it's glory but as it rose, a shadow started eating it away...
Yes - I am talking about the lunar eclipse that took place yesterday. It was quite a spectacle to behold and I attempted to take some long exposure photos with my astrophotography gear.
As the drama of the eclipse unfolded, I was able to capture it...
The whole saga
Well - not the whole actually. It was a total lunar eclipse but unfortunately, it began, in my location when the moon was below the horizon!
So - I got to see the moon, when it rose and coughed it's way through the haze of pollution hanging low on the horizon, the eclipse was already receding from it's max.
It was not less grand though, The moon looked orange and I could see exquisite details of moon craters through my lens. It looked like a half eaten exotic fruit hanging in the sky. Kind of reminded me of the Apple logo!😀
Half eaten blood orange look!
Th twilight it up the city below but the sky above had darkened - showing the lunar eclipse in lovely contrast against the cityscape below..
Eclipsed moon and the city...
Multitudes of worker-bee minded souls, toiling in the city had no idea probably of the astronomical display overhead..
As the main umbra of the earth drifted towards the edge of the moon, the color of the moon started lightening a bit but it still looked great..
In few minutes, the earth's main shadow, the Umbra left the moon with a small darkness showing on the moons's right cheek - like the mark of a lingering kiss...
Earth's umbra leaves the moon- with a last shadowy kiss...
The moon started turning pale. almost as if it regretted Umbra's leaving..
Though pale, it was still a glorious full moon. Completely free of any shadows after a few more minutes...
Eclipse free and glorious again!!
Here is the gear and settings I used:
- Camera: Nikon D500
- Lens: Nikkor 200-500 at 500mm
- Tripod: El-Cheapo medium tripod - Unbranded
- Aperture: 5.6
- Shutter speed: 1/500
- Exposure comp: -0.3
Compared to my wildlife photography sessions, this session was not difficult in terms of reaching locations, trekking on difficult terrain etc. However, it was challenging to get the right parameters so that I could capture the moon without over or under exposing it. It is amazing what modern cameras and lenses can do isn't it? I believe a mere 50 years ago, it used to take a telescope and a lot of effort with a camera to capture a decent picture of the moon. Now, cameras like mine and also simple 400$ bridge cameras like Nikon P900 also can capture beautiful images of the moon.
Hat's off to modern camera technology!
What do you think ? Do you think the images of the eclipsed moon turned out good? Have you attempted or would you attempt anything like this in photography? If so, please share your experience in comments.
Please comment freely and let me know your opinion. I will try to bring many different types of wildlife photos/macro/Astro posts to the community. Feedback and comments are welcome,. I am still learning many techniques and always value feedback from experts in this community.
Have a nice day everyone. Cheers!
