Waking Up Early to Photograph the Lunar Eclipse

This morning I woke up a bit earlier than usual to photograph the eclipse of the moon and the resulting ‘Blood Moon.’ This is an event that really does not happen very often. Usually when something like this happens we have cloudy skies, and I take my gear back into the house. This time though the skies were terrific, and I was able to witness the event. I grabbed my 60D and my 300mm lens which I already had staged on my monopod, and I went out to my driveway int he front of the house. It was there that I sat in a lawn chair and watched as the shadow of the Earth slowly fell on the moon. This really was cool to see even though I am sure my neighbors wondered about the lunatic sitting out in a lawn chair in the dark when it is 40 degrees outside. No matter what else is going on around you when you look up to the sky you can’t help but feel small. It was a beautiful night for something like this, and I am glad that for once I was able to capture it. While it was going on I was talking to my brother who was 80 miles away doing the same thing. There is far less noise pollution where he lives so maybe that will be the place where I shoot the blood moon next April.

The Challenges of Photographing the Blood Moon

I have posted a few tips in the past for making photos of the moon. You can find those here. When the moon was full, and even while it had a shadow moving across it those tips held up. I just had to tweak my exposure just a bit. Once the moon was fully in shadow though it was a different story, and all of my settings changed dramatically. I started off shooting at f/8 at 1/1000th of a second at ISO 100. As the shadow came across the moon I gradually changed my exposure to be down to 1/250th of a second with everything else staying the same. By the time that the moon was fully in shadow though I had to really change things up as you would expect. I cranked my ISO up to 1250 which is really pushing it on the 60D. I also went to a higher f-stop of f/2.8. My shutter speed to get the shot above was 1/25th of a second. I was on a monopod (I know I even said use a tripod in my tips) so I really had to focus on staying still while I made the exposure.  I really wanted the low light capability of the 5D Mark III, but I was gaining 60% reach with the 60D. I felt that anything that I gained in the noise department I would be getting right back when I had to crop in tighter. This was a time that I think the new 7D Mark II that comes out in November would be the perfect camera for the situation. When this occurs again in April I would like to rent the lens so that I can see how it will work on the moon.

The Stages of the Eclipse

Below are a few images that I made during the event early this morning. I exposed for the moon the entire time so the red portion of the eclipse does not show up until the final frame. Had I exposed for the red shadow I would have had a blinding light on the moon. I like how the series turned out.