Lunar eclipse pix

Managed to get a few shots of the eclipse.

http://pasnola.org/gallery/showphoto...sort=1&cat=500

Errol
www.pasnola.org

On Mar 3, 9:25 pm, "Starboard" wrote:
Managed to get a few shots of the eclipse.

http://pasnola.org/gallery/showphoto...=big&sort=1&ca...

Errolwww.pasnola.org

Errol,

Fine Moon pics! Very sharp and well resolved.

I dressed out and walked over to the railroad tracks
East of my house about 5:55 CST and there was a great deal
of haze on the eastern horizon. I was just about to give up
I saw this little orange sliver about 5 degrees off the deck.
(about 6:05)
That was about the time you took number one. The umbra was
right on the Aristarchus Plateau. I stayed a while untill
that northwest wind blew me back to the house.
I couldn't see any of the dark at first but later I checked
just as it had cleared Mare Imbrium and the umbra was
much darker than I expected it to be. Could be the haze
or just a dark eclipse.......

Thanks for posting,
Ben
90.126 n 35.539

how do you keep the camera steady at the eyepiece?.......I find that the
vast majority of my pix are blurred cos of my hands shaking.....have been
looking at a number of adaptors but as my old 3mp digital camera is
automatic you can only realistically take photos of the moon and
planets.....and I am unsure whether its money well spent......

--
M
------
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security
will deserve neither and lose both."
[Benjamin Franklin]

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."
[Erasmus]

"A collision at sea can ruin your entire day."
[Thucydides]

"Starboard" wrote in message
ups.com...
Managed to get a few shots of the eclipse.

http://pasnola.org/gallery/showphoto...sort=1&cat=500

Errol
www.pasnola.org

"M" wrote in message
...

how do you keep the camera steady at the eyepiece?.......I find that the
vast majority of my pix are blurred cos of my hands shaking.....have been
looking at a number of adaptors but as my old 3mp digital camera is
automatic you can only realistically take photos of the moon and
planets.....and I am unsure whether its money well spent......

If adaptors for a particular camera are not available, one can also use a
second tripod for the camera. It takes a bit of practice, but once you have
set up your scope, you can mount the camera above the eyepiece with itself
standing on a separate tripod.

--
M
--
I.N. Galidakis
http://ioannis.virtualcomposer2000.com/
MOYSIKHN POIEI KAI ERGAZOY

Fine Moon pics! Very sharp and well resolved.

I posted a higher res picture he

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/commun...iew=thumbs&ck=

But in order to see it full size, you would have to save it and open
it in a photo viewer at 100%. The current webpage language (I just
created it a week ago) compresses the photos into a frame. I'll get
around to fixing that when I have time.

I dressed out and walked over to the railroad tracks
East of my house about 5:55 CST and there was a great deal
of haze on the eastern horizon. I was just about to give up
I saw this little orange sliver about 5 degrees off the deck.
(about 6:05)

Same here. My two youngest boys and I were on top of a levee (holding
back the mighty Mississippi River and the highest elevation in this
flat land) betting who would be the first to spot it through the haze.
Ryan won. He spotted the sliver at about 5 degrees. He was also the
first to spot Orion.

That was about the time you took number one. The umbra was
right on the Aristarchus Plateau.

Indeed.

Thanks for your comments Ben,

Errol

On Mar 4, 5:10 am, "M" wrote:
how do you keep the camera steady at the eyepiece?.......I find that the
vast majority of my pix are blurred cos of my hands shaking.....have been
looking at a number of adaptors but as my old 3mp digital camera is
automatic you can only realistically take photos of the moon and
planets.....and I am unsure whether its money well spent......


The only "secret" is to use a high shutter speed (and a low f/stop to
properly expose things). I wasn't prepared to go to a lot of trouble
to image this one, since totality would be over by the time Luna
cleared my horison obstructions. I did setup the ETX 125, however, and
snap a few snapshots of the Moon by the simple expedient of holding
our little Canon A70 point 'n shoot up to a 26mm eyepiece. The Canon
does have a manual mode, and I cranked the shutter speed to about
1/250th to get a reasonably correctly exposed, non-shaky image:

http://skywatch.brainiac.com/planets/eclipse.htm

NO great shakes, but not bad considering the amount of "effort" I put
into it. ;-)

Unk Rod

On Mar 4, 5:55 am, "Ioannis" wrote:
"M" wrote in message

...



how do you keep the camera steady at the eyepiece?.......I find that the
vast majority of my pix are blurred cos of my hands shaking.....have been
looking at a number of adaptors but as my old 3mp digital camera is
automatic you can only realistically take photos of the moon and
planets.....and I am unsure whether its money well spent......

If adaptors for a particular camera are not available, one can also use a
second tripod for the camera. It takes a bit of practice, but once you have
set up your scope, you can mount the camera above the eyepiece with itself
standing on a separate tripod.

--
M

--
I.N. Galidakishttp://ioannis.virtualcomposer2000.com/
MOYSIKHN POIEI KAI ERGAZOY

I did this--set the camera up on a tripod next to the scope--for years
as a young sprout when imaging the Moon.

Unk Rod

how do you keep the camera steady at the eyepiece?.......I find that the
vast majority of my pix are blurred cos of my hands shaking.....
have been looking at a number of adaptors but as my old 3mp digital
camera is automatic you can only realistically take photos of the moon
and planets.....and I am unsure whether its money well spent......
M

I have had plenty success shooting the Moon, some success with
planets, none with DSO's.

And when I say success, I don't mean that they are a success in the
overall sense; just that I think they are *considering* the gear and
method.

Gear: A cheap Kodak EasyShare 3.2 mp. The camera, as is yours, is
automatic which complicates matters. I don't use an adapting bracket
of any kind. I have one, but find it to be more trouble than it's
worth. I have two Dob's (8" and 12") so I am not considering
photography beyond snapshots.

Method: Luck and persistence.

Seriously. Every time I shoot is an experiment. I shoot 20 pictures to
get five nice ones. First (of course), I turn the flash off. This
automatically puts the camera in the long exposure mode needed for dim
targets. This, as you know, makes matters worse for the obvious reason
that the longer the exposure, the more time the camera has to expose
your shake. I then experiment with the light settings in the menu.
After that, all that is left is to gently place the lens rim of the
camera just inside the rubber cap of the eyepiece (luckily, mine fits
nicely) and start shooting. By touching the rim of the camera to the
cap of the eyepiece, some vibration is dampened. Eventually, the focus
will be right and my hand fairly steady. Where these two line
intersect will be a decent picture.

Another experiment you might try would be to leave the flash on, but
cover it up with a piece of black vinyl tape. This would leave the
camera in the short exposure mode. Then, from the menu, adjust the
light sensitivity all the way up. This way, you may have a good
compromise between time and exposure. Just a thought.

I am considering buying a new digital camera. The one I decide on will
have a higher mp, manual focus capability, and, if affordable, image
stabilization. I am not buying it for astro-photography, but will
surely have it in mind.

PS. I posted a link (and instructions) to a higher res picture in my
reply to Ben above.

Errol

.. I posted a link (and instructions) to a higher res picture in my
reply to Ben above.

Errol

I filed your BMP and blew it up BIG. Looks really nice.

Thanks for the post.

Ben