Total Lunar Eclipse

This was my first attempt at astrophotography. Conditions... sucked; that's an astronomical term meaning that my neighbors' porch lights where on, street lights were on, and there was a slight weather inversion (layer of trapped fog in the upper air), all factoring in attempt to destroy my viewing opportunity. Fortunately, at least I got to see the lunar spectacle. My dad didn't get to see a thing from his cloudy and raining vantage point in Arizona. I setup on my front porch with my Canon 30D and Sigma lens mounted on a sturdy tripod, connected my shutter release cable, and took about 140 shots. Please enjoy these pictures.



This next one was a mistake. I thought I had set my shutter speed at 1/30 of a second, but it ended up being 30 full seconds. Happy accident, as this exposure picked up some other star light that I didn't observe with my own eyes. Looks closely to see a few stars tracking through the sky.




I don't have a cool set of images showing the phases of the eclipse, but this series shows the movement direction and distance of Moon through the sky in just a short seven minutes.


The last of Earth's shadow covers Moon as it passes through Sun's path. (Makes a decent desktop wallpaper.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

With all my love,
--Jack













And love from Jeff and Laurie, too! ;-)