BLOOD MOON - last night

[Robert Watcher]

I was very limited with my gear last night - but made an attempt to shoot the full eclipse from Nicaragua, anyway. The sky started out clear, and then as the earth shadow began to hide the moon - cloud cover moved in and made it even more difficult.

My focal length was 300mm which only provides a small moon shape on the frame. Initial exposures were typical low ISO and fast shutter speeds at f8 and then diminished to 1/2 second at 1600 ISO - - - while handholding and looking onto the LCD screen of my Olympus E-PL3. Auto Focus would not work and I did my best to find a decent focus manually.

I could only capture 1/2 of the event as a result of the clouds totally covering and darkening the sky once we had witnessed the "blood moon". It was beautiful to watch with the naked eye. Being it wasn't the greatest set of images I could take - but I still wanted to shoot it - I added some glitz to the eclipse series, just for interest sake. I left Mars in the bottom right corner of the shot.

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[bluzcity]

I think this is pretty awesome!

 

[it'sAlvin]

One of the best sets Ive seen. Well done!

 

[agentlossing]

Super cool!

 

[speedandstyle]

Very neat composite!

 

[newbert]

Fabulous! Very well done!

 

[RevBob]

Outstanding - really, really well done!

 

[jyc860923]

this is the photography I've been dreaming to do

 

[oldoldold]

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything--not sure why. This thread drew me out.
Here are a few of mine from last night:
#1 The Start of the total eclipse

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#2 The height of the total eclipse

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#3 At the end of the total eclipse

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Olympus E-PL5 with Panasonic 100-300 mm lens

 

[hkpzee]

Very cool set, Rob!

 

[Danny_SWE]

Finally in Sweden and Gothenburg we had the opportunity to witness this also!

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Super blood moon 2015 moon by Daniel Cederberg, on Flickr

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Super blood moon 2015 sky by Daniel Cederberg, on Flickr

 

[pasisti]

You lucky things! It was so cloudy here in Finland that there was nothing to see..

 

[Mike Deane]

Quick Question for the expert from a novice. I also tried to take picture of the blood moon and the eclipse. I had EM1 and a Panasonic 300 with (and without) a shutter control cable on a sturdy tripod. It seemed like it could never focus - the moon in the view finder grew and shrank. When it did not grow and shrink, I saw two "moons" in the view finder - one was solid yellow, and the other seemed to have craters... I am very puzzled. Please help...

 

[Robert Watcher]

Quick Question for the expert from a novice. I also tried to take picture of the blood moon and the eclipse. I had EM1 and a Panasonic 300 with (and without) a shutter control cable on a sturdy tripod. It seemed like it could never focus - the moon in the view finder grew and shrank. When it did not grow and shrink, I saw two "moons" in the view finder - one was solid yellow, and the other seemed to have craters... I am very puzzled. Please help...

I focused manually I believe. Nice feature of the Olympus cameras is that you can zoom in for focusing. I don't use that often, but in dark conditions it can help. The moon isn't going to change its distance from you. So once focus is set, you can fire away even when the moon is barely visible - conditions that would cause the searching for focus issues you experienced.

 

[Danny_SWE]

I focused manually I believe. Nice feature of the Olympus cameras is that you can zoom in for focusing.

+1 I always use that function when shooting the moon. It's very difficult anyway. And don't forget the delay shutter self release function so the shutter won't make your image blurry. Actually I forget that I noticed, afterwards