Like many people, I too got up early to see this July's lunar eclipse. I also went to the extent of trying to work out where the Moon was to set, and seeing that there was a chance that it could be seen setting between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney CBD, I planned my vantage point to be along the foreshore at Strickland House to have a gunbarrel view of the setting blood red Moon dip behind the city skyline, and have nothing else but the water in front of me.
However, I didn't take any astro specific gear to photograph it. There would be plenty of people doing this. Even where I set up there were a few photographers set up exactly for this purpose. Instead, I only took along a little Brinno time lapse camera & tripod for it, my 11X70 binos, and a sketch pad and oil pastels. I did also took a modest camera to capture some stills, but avoided telescopic imaging of the eclipse.
And I am really happy with what I came up with. I got to enjoy the eclipse, and my sketching made me keenly aware of the changing colouration of the Moon as it went on its journey through Earth's shadow. It also made me very blooming aware of how COLD it was
I first did a sketched time lapse of the event. I was able to capture the changing brilliance and hue of the Moon this way, the movement of the sky and water, and the vibrance of the city lights. Immediate and colourful. The spec above and to the left of the Moon is Mars, and the two dashed lines are planes that crossed through the view.
As I waited between moments of sketching the different lunar appearances, I viewed the Moon through the binos, and was taken aback by the gorgeous colour, shade variations and odd appearance of familiar landmarks. I just had to lay down an oil pastel sketch of the Moon this way, along with the few stars that could only be seen when using binos or a scope.
And here's that little time lapse of the setting eclipsed Moon, with Mars chasing it. As it turned out, the Moon set just to the left of Centrepoint Tower, but it was obscured by cloud along the western horizon. This point alone shows how many faked photos of the eclipse have been bandied about, worse still these fakes having been bought by major news outlets!
A last gasp glimpse of the Moon can be seen around the 57 second mark just to the left of Centerpoint.
I also managed some pics of the dawn skyline.
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Cheers,
Alex.
