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Old 30-08-2007, 01:57 PM
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iceman (Mike)
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Gosford, NSW, Australia
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Exclamation Total Lunar Eclipse Sequence and Static Progression

Hi all

Finally I got around to processing my images from Tuesday night. While i'm happy enough with the results, they're not exactly the images I'd been hoping for.

For the eclipse sequence, I just don't have the right equipment to get the shots I had in my minds eye. The 12" focal length was too long, the 300mm on the camera was too short. In the end, this sequence is a combination of both.

The partial phases were taken with the 12" newt (dob base) + 32mm eyepiece, with a Canon 300D + 28mm lens, afocal handheld up to the eyepiece.
The totality phase was taken with the 300D + 75-300mm lens @ 300mm, tracked on my EQ6.
The images were resized and combined to make the sequence composite. I've presented them in a diagonal and horizontal orientation.. simply because I don't know which one I prefer best


The widefield static progression sequence was captured with my 350D + Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 17mm on a fixed tripod. I had my watch repeating a countdown timer every 7mm to go and take a shot.
Unfortunately the early phases of the eclipse were clouded out, so the sequence starts further up than I would've liked. I also ran out of FOV, so I wasn't able to capture the last parts of the eclipse.
The foreground (water/wharf) was captured with a 20s exposure (ISO200) which was lit by the low full moon. The stars were captured with a 25s exposure (ISO1600) just after totality had finished.
The individual moon captures were varying exposures @ ISO200 or ISO400.
The images were combined in Photoshop.

It's no Fred Espanek, but it was a learning experience.


The last image is me with my equipment on the night

Anyway I've really enjoyed seeing people's images. Next time I'll have an ED80 or similar on a tracking mount, with adapters for my DSLR to get the type of images I wanted.

Thanks for looking.
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