Moon shooters in N-S America, don't forget the eclipse

thanks for the heads up
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http://www.highsee3.smugmug.com

'A camera maker that simply copies others' idea has no right to call itself an original
maker in the first place.' -Mr. Maitani, creator of the OM photographic system.

Thanks very much for the heads-up! I live where all phases will be visible...

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Are there any recommended settings for shooting such an event. D200 + 18-200 lens.

Julian -

I think with a 200 mm lens, you are going to have a hard time, as the moon will be really small in the frame.

I shot the October 27, 2004 eclipse with a Canon 300D (1st generation dRebel) and a Bigma, and at 500 mm, the width of the moon was only 1/4th the frame height.

That said, here are the exposure values that worked for me, at ISO 200, tripod mounted:

Full moon: f11 1/250
half covered: f8 1/60th
quarter covered: f8 1/30th
total eclipse: f8 2s

good luck.

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Regards -

Doug

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Do you need a loupe to visit a museum?

As a follow-up, I just uploaded a web size reduced image of a composite assembled from the 10/27/2004 eclipse I mentioned above - it is at
http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=2052835

I know, I know - photosig is not the ideal vehicle, but I don't have a smugmug or other image sharing site set up - sorry.
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Regards -

Doug

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Do you need a loupe to visit a museum?

Yes, sorry to say but with a 35mm frame size, you need 2000mm to fill it from top to bottom. With camera lenses, the more f.l. the better.

I'm guessing (there is a formula) but you'll get trailing around 1 second at an equivalent of 400mm or so. So shooting the full eclipse phase will be problematic. One thing that can be tried is to shoot a bunch of images at a fast shutter speed in rapid succession and using PS or Registax (free program) to combine them. It will suppress noise and increase the quality of the finished shot. Note: This is not HDR.

For exposures versus "trailing image" times, look at this link and the white table partway down on the right side.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/howtophoto/

I just took a snap shot. I knew I didn't have the equipment to do it justice. The moon moves very fast in the sky, 1 sec was way too long.



--
http://www.highsee3.smugmug.com

'A camera maker that simply copies others' idea has no right to call itself an original
maker in the first place.' -Mr. Maitani, creator of the OM photographic system.