Sunday, December 11, 2011

Last Lunar Eclipse of 2011…

Clear skies and a early eclipse prompted a lot of shutter-bugs (photogs) to take to the skies to capture this beautiful phenomenon. Given the fact that most lunar eclipses that i know of usually happen late at night (around midnight) this was a lovely opportunity to shoot the lovely moon.

Eclipse1

Normal moon photography is not too much of an issue, as the settings are more or less fixed,

Eclipse2

but this was the first time I shot a Lunar Eclipse and it was a couple of hours of experimentation that went into the whole thing.  While the normal moon photographs like the one above and below were take with the following settings,

F/11, Shutter – 0.05 seconds (1/20), ISO – 400, focal length – 300 mm.

Eclipse3

But these looked like photos of a normal moon, a bit orange – red coloured, but otherwise normal, while the moon i was seeing was awesome…. so once I tried to show the eclipse, as I was actual seeing it, I was stumped. Trying to get the parts in shadow meant that the lit part was over-exposed.

 Eclipse4

But persisted with different settings, and finally got some good pics….

 Eclipse5

Got a nice one of the total eclipse….

Eclipse6

and finally the total eclipse….

Eclipse7

And the return of light :-)

Eclipse8

Eclipse9 

12 comments:

  1. Whoa !!! This is more amazing than I initially thought ! I guess I will have to get the 300 mm ?

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  2. Priyanka dev12/12/11 07:47

    Very nice santosh!

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  3. Awesome indeed! Very well done!

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  4. Well done Santa! That's a great attempt

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  5. I remember seeing this in the sky -two days back .Nice to meet a fellow bureaucrat doing his own thing !

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  6. For those of us who missed the Lunar Eclipse - this was more than welcome.

    Loved how you captured the change of colour, from a dull brown to a mellow orange.

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