Lunar Eclipse from Mt Buffalo

[Phil Hart]

better late than never i guess!

here's a blog post I've put together with images of the lunar eclipse from June. In true blog spirit, it includes lots of irrelevant text that serves as my diary entry for the event. hope you like the images at least (a couple of teasers attached)!

http://philhart.com/content/lunar-eclipse-mt-buffalo-16th-june-2011

the blog post also includes the lunar eclipse timelapse i showed at AAIC using Fred's timemachine which you can find on smugmug: http://philhart.smugmug.com/ (http://philhart.smugmug.com/Astronomy/Stars-in-Motion/10317254_qVP9n#1396639640_wh6W7dJ)

cheers
Phil

[trek1701]

Hi Phil

As usual, great stuff.
Pity there was no snow at the time it would have made a terrific back drop.
However it must have been freezing cold still.

Keep up the good work


Mark

[iceman]

Hey Phil, your site isn't loading for me. And the timelapse on Smugmug is terrible terrible quality in terms of jpeg compression.

Something happen there?

[multiweb]

I enjoyed all the pics and the presentation but the timing and framing on that timelapse is unreal. Obviously a lot of research and planning before shooting that short sequence and the final motion really shows. Hats off to you. :thumbsup:

[Phil Hart]

Not sure what's happening with the link.. seems fine here and for Marc??

I've uploaded a higher quality version of the video to smugmug and changed the link above. The changing sky brightness doesn't compress well but it's mainly the smugmug engine rather than my file (or maybe that's why David Malin didn't like this one either? ;))

Phil

[Rigel003]

Hey Phil. If I'm not mistaken that's my old Tak 102. Glad to see it being put to good use. Great photos. I especially like the deep widefield during totality - you've got to think outside the square to attempt that. The time lapse is great. How fast does the camera travel along the dolly?

[Phil Hart]

Yes.. the Tak performs very well as an eclipse scope. I expect it will be in Cairns next year too ;)

The dolly is still a work in progress and I had to throw a different motor on just on the day of the eclipse, which had a maximum 1 hour runtime which was way too fast. I'm working on changing that..

[gregbradley]

Some great work there Phil. I love the 3 moon shot with the yellow moon in the centre.

Interestingly the moon seems to get slightly smaller as it goes along. Is that an atmospheric extinction phenomena?

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

I think that's just an optical illusion (either that or I messed up in Photoshop ;)). If you measure the pixel dimensions of each of the three moons in the composite they should be the same..

[Paul Haese]

Very nice work Phil. I too was using a 102 Tak. They seem to present a great scale for these sort of events. It will be my solar eclipse scope next year too.

The animation is very nice, and I like the scale presented from the 14-24. Certainly going to give this a try at the next lunar.

[alexch]

Great stuff, Phil!
Superb images and the motion control looks great in the timelapse.

Cheers,
Alex

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Paul. I was using a 1.4x extender/flattener on the scope as well. Native focal length would probably not make much difference though.

For timelapse, I'm using the fixed Canon 24mm on the 5D.. Alex is the one with the 14-24 and he knows how to use it too! ;)

[naskies]

Phil,

I just read your blog post... that was an amazing multitasking effort on your part considering the amount of equipment you were operating. Not to mention the weather! Colour me impressed! :)


Dave