Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 15, 2014 at 11:20 PM
Last night I basically drove right to the Lowell Observatory up in Flagstaff and planted myself in a paved lot about 1000 feet away from the dome. I figured that'd be the best seat in the house, lol. It was pretty amazing once the moon was fully eclipsed because the whole sky lit up like there was no moon. The moon was pretty dim, not much brighter than starlight so it created quite an amazing look.
I've done my best to represent the actual color of this eclipse. In fact I shot at Daylight WB because it's a sunlit object, but even that was providing an image that was more saturated and warm than what was in the sky. I adjusted the color temp to 4200 and that pretty much mimicked what I was seeing up there, although this appears a bit brighter than the moon really was. I noticed a lot of images round the web were way redder and saturated than what was really going on (at least at 7,000 feet with no light pollution).
Oh, just for the astronomically curious, the bright star in the lower right is Spica.
5D3 with a rented 300mm/2.8, then I cropped in with an 8x10 ratio. The IS in that crazy lens made this shoot possible, my tripod is a bit wiggly... and focusing with Live View at 10x was also a lifesaver. Single shot, 1/4 sec at 4.5, ISO 400.
Posted by John Mumaw on April 16, 2014 at 10:19 PM
Perfect! Nicely exposed, and I really like the brighter star as it provides a real nice balance to the moon. Good work, Paul!
Discussion
3 repliesI've done my best to represent the actual color of this eclipse. In fact I shot at Daylight WB because it's a sunlit object, but even that was providing an image that was more saturated and warm than what was in the sky. I adjusted the color temp to 4200 and that pretty much mimicked what I was seeing up there, although this appears a bit brighter than the moon really was. I noticed a lot of images round the web were way redder and saturated than what was really going on (at least at 7,000 feet with no light pollution).
Oh, just for the astronomically curious, the bright star in the lower right is Spica.
5D3 with a rented 300mm/2.8, then I cropped in with an 8x10 ratio. The IS in that crazy lens made this shoot possible, my tripod is a bit wiggly... and focusing with Live View at 10x was also a lifesaver. Single shot, 1/4 sec at 4.5, ISO 400.