Moon eclipse phases, a photo from Noord-Holland, South

Photographer's Note

Click on the photo for a larger version!

This is not really an "earth" photo :) but as I mentioned in my intro, I also practice astrophotography so I like to share a serie of photos of a moon eclipse.

This was the total moon eclipse of 1996 as seen from the Netherlands. I took a serie of 24 photos of the eclipse and "summarised" it in these 7 phases. The total elapsed time from left (full moon) to right (full eclipse) was about 2 hours.

For this purpose I removed the lens of my camera and I used my telescope (with primary focal length of 1200mm) as a giant zoomlens (with a special adapter). The resulting magnification was 24x. To compensate for the rotation of the earth around its axis, I used a special motor to have my telescope mimic the earth's rotation, so the moon remained stationary in the view. Without this compensation, all photos would become blurred at this high magnification.

The colors are natural, no adjustments made. The red color was caused by the earth reflection of sunlight onto the dark part of the moon (similar effects during sunsets). With the naked eye this red color was very faint and had a "rusty" color. I increased the exposure times from phase 5 to capture this red glow.

Exposure times:
Phase 1, 2, 3: 1 sec
Phase 4: 2 secs
Phase 5: 4 secs
Phase 6: 6 secs
Phase 7: 30 secs (full eclipse)

---------
17 March: Thanks for all your kind comments!

Topy, tuffellow, RobBrown, mogens-j, bfly, Deus, orme, wr1611, Eagle78, dinaydase, Bat, jiherka, Riz, roconnell, mortijo, ninfa_urania, archanabhimasen has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

cool_s15 (4050) 2004-03-14 7:50

I supposed you worked so hard to get this one!
Great tecnique used here using the telescope to get those huge size. Very well captured, a beautiful shot!

wilkinsonsg (8662) 2004-03-14 7:51

Informative text, very interesting

bud_ricks (78) 2004-03-14 8:03

A very good and hard job. Bravo and thanks a lot for explanation because it's as important as shot.

Topy (139) 2004-03-14 8:04

Great technique et very informative note.
I especially like the amber color of the eclipsed moon.

jrj (34843) 2004-03-14 9:49

Impressive and grand tech in the very well done panorama presentation. Very good Tai

tuffellow (546) 2004-03-14 11:05

Very impressive technique with the motor. You must be really good at math to have calculated how fast the motor should move! Or was it just guessing and checking?Excellent shot. Congratulations!

Riz (0) 2004-03-14 16:59

great picture, well thought out and put together, creative vision I respect that.

mogens-j (56) 2004-03-14 17:47

Tai it is an incredible collage of a full moon eclipse and a very informative note too. You did a very fine job here. I have a Meade telescope too (ETX 90) with an adapter for my Nikon D100. Unfortunatelly I am no good with manual focus so I mostly use it for what it was ment;-)).

Anyway thank you for sharing this beautifull collage.

Deus (928) 2004-03-14 18:37

Great imagery you got here!
And as to your comment that this is "not Earth...", well, but of course it is! Isnｴt it the earth that casts its shadow over the moon during lunar eclipses ?
Itｴs just a different approach, and, in my oppinion at least, one that perfectly fits the aim of this site.

orme (7219) 2004-03-15 0:29

A very original composition and well presented in the panoramic format. I especially like the 'red' moon at the end. Interesting note. Well done, Tai.

Eagle78 (1933) 2004-03-16 16:01

Really wonderful work Tai! These sequence is great with good details from all those phases. And your note is precious, revealing us the all work you done to get this. Really great job :)

dinaydase (651) 2004-03-17 22:54

Great work! It is very informative. I can say that with you notes I have learned a lot. Thanks for sharing this photo and information. As for the photo it is great nothing else I can say. One question. What was your exposure time for the photos? Was it too much that you needed that motor? Thanks...

maphoto (8082) 2004-03-17 23:43

Great work and good note, very intersting and good idea, very beautiful, Congratulations!

Bat (102) 2004-03-19 16:27

BRAVO, this a real beautifull job you have done with this moon. Your technique need some equipement but the result worth it !!!

Great colors, lots of details for a so far subjet !

I want to shoot it too ! Would you share your telescope with me ? ;)

Wonderfull picture with a very usefull note.

Thank you !

Baptiste.

jiherka (4552) 2004-03-20 10:22

Great works. I like the composition. The individual picture are also very good.
Thanks to share it.
Well done Tai.

roconnell (327) 2004-04-17 1:54

Fantastic series. The clarity is wonderful, and I like the natural colors very much.

jhonny_blue (4956) 2004-04-21 5:07

Wonderful composition Tai !
Itｴs beautiful and perfect !
Good work and weel done !

Piotr (0) 2004-05-06 12:01

Professional job :-)

Laurence (0) 2004-05-27 9:37

Exceptionnelle composition astronomique ! Un grand bravo pour ce travail de patience... :-)

archanabhimasen (270) 2005-04-19 11:29

Neat concept and technique you have used here....CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement!!!

Ulises (1026) 2005-05-24 22:52

tai,
what an amazing picture, i was speechless when i saw it, great focus and colors..congratulations,
if you could give me some advice on how to take pics to the moon (when i upload my pictures and i want people to see a larger version, how do i do that so people can click on it?)
rgrds
ulises

pvenkatesh (57) 2006-09-11 23:54

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the photos & information on how you have captured , there is saying Techology Need not be invented it is devoloped then & there itself,

Exelent demonstration how we could capture these moments of Nature.

Thanks.

Venkat

CLAP (676) 2006-09-20 15:21

Wonderfull !!

Photo Information

Copyright: Tai Vo (taivo) (1843)
Genre: 場所
Medium: カラー
Date Taken: 1996-04-04
Categories: 自然
Camera: Pentax MV, Meade Reflector 1200, ISO 100
Photo Version：　Original Version
Theme(s)：　Universe, L'univers, Universo, Universum, Personal favourites [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2004-03-14 7:34
お気に入り：　8 [view]