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My view of the Lunar Eclipse, December 2010

Dec 23 2010

My view of the Lunar Eclipse December 2010
5DMKII + 100mm f/2.8, 2.5sec at f/4.5, ISO 640

Yesterday, I ran outside with my 5DMKII and my tripod to grab a shot of the lunar eclipse at midnight — half in pjs and wearing a beaver hat. :P
It was so foggy and cloudy that it took Pete and I about 15 minutes to find the moon. We were about to call an “epic eclipse fail” when the cloud cover broke, and the moon appeared behind my building…

I darted under my building and pointed my longest lens, the 100mm f/2.8, straight up at the sky. I cranked my ISO to 6400 and used live view to focus on the moon and frame in the building. Then, I switched back to camera view and decreased my ISO to 640 and used a shutter release remote to snap this. The moon was only visible for about 5 minutes, so I only got about 10 shots. I did briefly think what I would have gotten with this 800mm I got to fondle at Canon Press room at the 2010 Olympics…

If you snapped a shot of the Lunar eclipse, please share it in the comments, I’m really interested to see your shots!

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tagged in Featured, Photography

14 Responses to “My view of the Lunar Eclipse, December 2010”

  1. Nathan Choate December 23rd, 2010 at 1:45 am

    AWESOME! This is one of the best shots of the eclipse I have seen. Good stuff. I was bummed that there was super thick cloud cover here. Couldn’t see it at all. :o(

  2. Tweets that mention My view of the Lunar Eclipse, December 2010 | MostlyLisa.com | Photography tips & tricks -- Topsy.com December 23rd, 2010 at 2:25 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by CreativePhotoKC. CreativePhotoKC said: RT @photoaddicts: My view of the Lunar Eclipse, December 2010: 5DMKII + 100mm f/2.8, 2.5sec at f/4.5, ISO 640 http://bit.ly/h55ehQ [...]

  3. Michael B December 23rd, 2010 at 10:49 am

    I was very fortunate regarding weather. Clear the entire night and warmish in Tampa, Florida.

    Some of my pics can be found on my FB profile [http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2600050&id=5026895&l=a0022f84bd] or my main site [http://www.perihelionphotography.com/Nature/Lunar-Eclipse].

    I do feel very dumb for one thing. I spent the entire evening with my 70-200 using teleconverters to zoom in, constantly adjust, and juggle settings. At the very end I was thinking, I wish I had a better lens and then suddenly remembered that I had an of Canon FD 400mm 2.8 manual lens sitting in a closet about which I had nearly forgotten I had. So I ran back inside and squeezed off just a couple of shots of the last bit of the shadow passing over. Argggggg. Oh well, next lunar eclipse I’ll definitely be ready.

  4. Chris Ratzlaff December 23rd, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    Beautiful composition, Lisa! I really like the thin red haze around the moon!

    Here a few of my shots from the eclipse, shot with a 7D and 70-200-non-IS:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ratzlaff/5281581673/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ratzlaff/5279224325/

  5. Tim December 23rd, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    my shot – very cloudy skys
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/alborath/5280084844/

  6. Charles Baker December 23rd, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    Lucky you!! I sat outside away from the city on a hill for hours. Not once did the cloud cover break for me to get a shot. Very dissapointing. Your shot is great the way you composed it.

  7. Drew Griffin December 23rd, 2010 at 8:17 pm

    Great Shot Lisa. Thanks for listing your settings as I was curious how to take shots of the moon. Beautiful and thanks for sharing

  8. Anthony Lattanzio December 24th, 2010 at 1:02 am

    great shot , i tried to get one myself but couldn’t get it right with a Rebel XTI that i only had with me. 70-300mm f4.5.

  9. Nathan December 24th, 2010 at 11:45 am

    You’re lucky you had clear skies and are situated on the west coast. We, near Washington DC, had perfectly clear skies and it was a gorgeous night; however, I was not able to stay up till 3 AM our time to capture the moon in all its red glory and still get up to go to work in the morning. One more thing I miss about being on the west coast.

  10. Darcy McGee December 25th, 2010 at 11:50 pm

    Moon is, generally speaking, 125/f8 @ an ISO of 100. That makes me doubt that this shot was a single exposure.

    The change in the colour and accompanying brightness caused by the eclipse would require a longer exposure, but 2.5 seconds at and ISO of 6400 makes you off by far too many stops.

  11. Mostly Lisa December 26th, 2010 at 12:53 am

    @Darcy McGee: The photo was taken at ISO 640. Check the EXIF.

  12. Zoe December 29th, 2010 at 11:14 pm

    Lisa,
    I love how you balanced the avalible light with the lunar light, is this a composite of more than one photo?
    Here is a photo that I took, it is single exposure.

    http://opticbard.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/lunar-eclipse/

  13. vancouverphotographer December 31st, 2010 at 3:06 pm

    I came across this post while doing a search for photos of the recent lunar eclipse. Just wanted to write and tell you what a wonderful shot you took! Lovely composition and light!

  14. Stan Richard January 12th, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    Hi Lisa, here’s my eclipse shot from suburban Des Moines, using a 5D mkII and 70-200 IS L with 1.4x teleconverter. btw, love your site :)
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanzman/5349566493/

    Cheers!

    Stan

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