What A Night For An Eclipse

[Speed]

My emotions went something like:
10 am: "Grumble."
2pm: "Dangit."
6pm: "Shoot."
9pm: "&%(!"

I never saw said lunar eclipse At least our resident astrophotographer got to though!

Better luck for me in 2007!

Rick

Rickster,

Sorry you missed the show. I was majorly bummed that I missed totality, but at least I saw some of the show.

I'm eager to get my film developed to see how the Celestron shots came out. I'll post some of those if I got any decent ones.

Mark your calender for March 3rd, 2007. That's the next total eclipse. There are going to be some partial eclipses between now and then, so you'll still get a chance to practice between now and then.

Thanks for the comments my friend!

[Speed]

from a non photography perspective...everything is moving. The moon is making its way across the sky as you were taking its picture. Figure it takes 15 hrs = 900 minutes = 54000 seconds for 180 degrees across your field of view. If those assumptions are correct, the moon will move .013 degrees in the time you want to take that picture. After converting to radians (ahem, engineering student here) we can figure out how far it actually moved. 2.2e-4 radians. The moon is roughly 384400 kilometers away. So in that four seconds the moon moved about 84.5 km.

Even though i don't actually know...anything... i would say that 4 seconds is probably too long for a camera that is not moving with the moon.

Just my observation.
-Pete

I love your analysis! I have a buddy who spent two and a half years as an engineering student, then changed his major to history. He always said engineers measure with a micrometer, mark with a grease pencil, and cut with an axe! Got to love it. Hehehe.

PS, you left out that the earth is spinning at roughly 1000 miles per hour at the equator. I don't know the math to convert that to 34 degrees, 46 minutes north latitude, but it's still a considerable rate!

[Speed]

Thanks for the tips Speed, I actually came to a similiar conclusion re: shutter speed and blur, so it was good to hear you say that. I'm not sure that you can see it in this image, but there is an obvious difference between the 3rd and 4th frame.

Mike

I CAN see it! There is a difference, even at the reduced size.

There's a learning curve, but it's fun and enjoyable! Now when the next eclipse comes along (24 Apr 05 for the west coast, 17 Oct 05 for the rest of us), you'll be better prepared. Oh yeah, the next ones are partial eclipses.

Thanks for sharing your images and your experience. I found it very interesting and informative.