Saturday, December 10, 2011

Total Lunar Eclipse


Just prior to morning twilight, a total lunar eclipse was visible in the Pacific Northwest. Morning fog crept over much of Seattle, obscuring the view, but I got up early for a hike up Mount Si to get a better view. I was joined by around six other parties who had the same idea.

The primary frustration to my photography was the maddeningly quick rotation of the Earth. This limited exposures at this focal length to around two seconds, after which the moon and stars become streaks rather than nicely resolved images.

The various remedies for this are quite expensive: a f/2.8 lens that lets in more light, or a motorized equatorial mount to a tripod, which tracks the apparent movement of the sky around the polar axis.

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