Lunar eclipse

For those of you who may have missed Mx verteran's heads up in the stricken ferry thread:

Details can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/2cgawu scroll down and you can open a seperate window for GMT or GMT+1. I don't think I shall be leaving my nice warm bed for this one though.

Not sure I will, either, although I'm given to understand that there isn't another one visible from the UK until 2010.

If you do get up to photograph it, bear in mind that motion blur is a high risk with long exposures.

Hopefully we get some clear skies here - starts just after supper - about an hour after sunset.

Sure wish I had a Bigma now...

I won't get motion blur 'cos I shall PAN

I'd give it a go - but I think it's going to be cloudy where I am.

I got the last one with a humble Pentax-A 70-210mm F4 - but the pics were rather blurry. Interesting colours though.

Well it is cloudy here and the forecast is for it to stay so. I got the last one too, so that is more good reasons to stay in bed
I hope you'll post some photos Classvino!

If I don't - send someone with hot coffee... or alcohol... - it's -8 degrees celsius now, and as soon as the sun goes down, so does the temperature...

Can't see any clouds out the window right now... Might be good... Found the 500mm mirror but the monopod won't cut it tonight - hmmm... where did I leave that tripod...

I took some pics of the last one, late last year. During the eclipse, the available light is very very low and the biggest problem is the fact that the moon itself is moving . . . faster than you'd think. My results were very disappointing (c**p in fact), good luck if you plan to be around in the early hours of the morning to see it.

My experience was similar, and I was wondering whether to have another go tonight, at high ISO, and put up with the noise.

However, the Heathrow aviation forecast for tonight, issued just after 9pm (probably the most accurate short term forecast in the country) is for 3000m visibility (which means mist), scattered cloud at 1500 feet and broken cloud at 4000 feet. With a 30% probability of broken cloud at 700 feet as well.

So although there is a chance of a clear patch, it is slim, and not sufficient for me to either stay up or set the alarm.

Good luck all

I'm hoping it'll be OK - if the 500mm mirror is too dark (f I'll try with my 2.8 but it's only 80 at the long end... the 1.7X would make that 135mm at f4 or so - might work... Hopefully noise won't be too much of an issue if I have to bump the ISO up past 800 (I currently have that set as the high end...)

We'll try...

Well your forecast is much better than here in London, although damn cold by the look of it. Make sure your batteries are well charged.

Toronto is looking clear at the moment, with better than 10km visibility (so probably not too much haze), and no more than broken cloud at 3000 feet, with occasional snow showers.

And of course, you don't have to stay up till 3 in the morning.

Look forward to the results. Keep the shutter speeds short. Nothing above 0.5s, better less if possible. 80mm will not be anywhere near enough. 500 will be ample, but don't be fooled into a several second exposure, since the result will simply be a disappointing blur (guess how I know).

Right now, after nearly 2 weeks of crystal skies we have clouds in Shropshire. God sure does have a good sense of humour

Apparently I setup too early - frozen already, and no shadow yet...

What ISO setting do you expect is needed to enable a reasonably fast shutter speed - with F5.6, for example?

Go for about 800 and check. You will have plenty of time to change ISO and try again. You don't need a high Iso until totallity any way as the moon is very bright. You may have to use HDR to get a good shot during the partial phase. Or take two different exposures and cut and paste the two correctley exposed bits together.