Denver Eclipse

This was taken from our back deck in Westminster - 2:07 AM.

At the start of the eclipse we had a thick cloud cover, and it appeared to be getting worse. This was my first attempt at eclipse photograpny, so I took a few shots of the foggy moon and went in to download the files check how far I could push the shutter speeds and iso combos. I was pretty certain I would be heading to bed, but when I returned to take in the camera and tripod the skies had cleared! My wife was so happy that I woke her up and dragged her outside.

Canon 1Ds2, 500mm + 1.4x TC, f5.6, ISO 800, 1 sec
Single exposure, no crop

I'm impressed with Doug's 3200 ISO expsoure with the 5D2.
800 ISO is pushing it on the 1Ds2

Pretty!!

Same image, cropped and exposure adj.

Awesome Bill! You certainly can't complain about your result, it is gorgeous

Great capture. Was really cool to see in person.

Yeah, this looks great! Good job, Bill.
We were socked in with clouds, so it's real good to see this here.

Awesomely done Bill. You definitely had the right lens & TC for this. These definitely beat my shots as far as sharpness goes.

Thanks, guys. It sure was nice being at home and having the time to download and process images several times during this eclipse. It was great "on-the-job" learning for a first timer. Those multisecond exposures, useable with wide angle lenses, just don't cut it with a long telephoto.

I was also fortunate to have set the focus while the moon was bright, then switched to manual focus. I had no idea the moon would be so dim at totality, an ~11 stop change!!

Great image Bill. Talk about a cushy location. Did you have the coffee pot on also

I laughed when I saw that you took this from your back deck! Nice work, Bill.

Great result also, Bill. My problem was the 400/5.6 lens + 2x TC would give me a max aperture of only f/11, so it was great to be able to crank the ISO on the 5DII

Don, I'm not a coffee drinker, but we did splurge on a pot of Mexican hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and a dash (or two...) of peppermint schnapps. I must say the night turned out much better than expected. Of course, not having to go to work today helps.

Cool Bill. I was in GoG until 0230. Wish I'd remembered that I had my 1.4tx (DOH!) My shots were limited to 400mm. I like the size of the moon in the frame here. Hope mine are a well focused!

Bill:

Great shot. I'm socked in with snow and clouds in Mammoth Lakes, CA (which you will be getting soon I'm sure) that we saw nothing, so thanks for posting this fabulous image. I'm impressed with your tenacity at that hour to figure out the exact right combo of settings to get this. I will try to emulate this when it next happens in 2000 years or so

Frank

wow - nice ..

Very nicely done.. all images sharp and excellent!

Sheesh, these are every bit as good as Doug's. Outstanding work, Bill!

Great, tack sharp image