Capturing the Moon's Dance: My First Lunar Eclipse Experience

There's something truly magical about witnessing celestial events with your own eyes, but capturing them to share with others? That's a whole new level of excitement!

Last night, I had the incredible opportunity to photograph my very first lunar eclipse, and I'm thrilled to share the process with you all. It was a learning experience filled with anticipation, adjustments, and ultimately, a lot of awe.

The Gear Behind the Shots

For this endeavor, I relied on a familiar setup:

• Camera: Canon EOS 2000D
• Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM

This combination proved to be a capable entry point into the world of lunar photography, allowing me to zoom in on the moon's intricate details.

Navigating the Eclipse: Camera Settings

Capturing a lunar eclipse is all about adapting to the changing light conditions. The moon goes from brilliantly lit to a subtle, reddish hue as it passes through Earth's shadow. Here's a breakdown of the settings I used throughout the eclipse, primarily at the 250mm focal length:

• Early Stages (Approaching Totality):
  • Frames 1-4: 1/100s, f/8, 800 ISO
  • Frames 5-8: 1/60s, f/8, 1600 ISO
• During Totality (Faintest Light):
  • Frames 9-10: 1/3s, f/8, 3200 ISO
  • Frames 11-91: 1/3s, f/5.6, 3200 ISO
  • Frames 92-96: 1/3s, f/5.6, 1600 ISO
  • Frames 97-99: 1/3s, f/5.6, 800 ISO
• Emerging from Totality (Increasing Light):
  • Frames 100-102: 1/100s, f/8, 800 ISO
  • Frames 103-109: 1/160s, f/8, 800 ISO
  • Frames 110-117: 1/160s, f/8, 400 ISO
  • Frames 118-120: 1/250s, f/8, 400 ISO
  • Frames 121-139: 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO
  • Frames 140-151: 1/250s, f/8, 100 ISO
  • Frames 152-161: 1/320s, f/8, 100 ISO
  • Frames 162-209: 1/500s, f/8, 100 ISO

As you can see, I significantly adjusted the shutter speed and ISO to compensate for the dramatic changes in the moon's brightness. Starting with faster shutter speeds and lower ISO for the brighter phases, and then slowing down the shutter and increasing the ISO for the darker totality phase, was key.

Bringing it all Together: Processing

Once I had my sequence of images, it was time to process them. I used:

• PIPP (Planetary Imaging Pre-processing): This powerful tool was essential for preparing the individual frames, aligning them, and ultimately stacking them to create a cleaner, more detailed image. It also helped in converting the sequence into a video, showcasing the moon's journey.
• Photoshop: After the initial processing in PIPP, I used Photoshop for final touches. This included cropping the images to focus on the moon and saving them in a suitable format (TIFF for quality).

The Result

Photographing a lunar eclipse for the first time was an incredibly rewarding experience. It's a reminder of the dynamic nature of our solar system and the beauty that can be captured with a bit of patience and the right tools.

I'm excited to continue exploring the night sky and sharing my astronomical adventures with you all! Stay tuned for more updates.