Photographing a Lunar Eclipse

It is not hard to photograph a lunar eclipse with only basic photographic equipment. Really nice lunar eclipse photographs can be taken with a telescope with a camera adapter. To get photographs of the Moon when it is really dark during totality it helps to have a guiding system for the telescope. This is because you will need longer exposures when the Moon is very dark.

As a example an 8 inch telescope at 5/10 will produce a really great image, but a 10 inch telescope at f/10 will be too much magnification. You don't want to use too much magnification because the images will be disappointing. The best images show the entire Moon. Trying to use a lot of magnification and catching the shadows moving across craters just doesn't work, the effects are too subtle.

The real challenge to photographing lunar eclipses is exposure times. The Moon goes from very bright, in which case you use a short exposure to very dim where a longer exposure is required.

During totality, when the Moon is entirely inside the umbra, the Moon is very dark. It isn't completely dark though, because light gets refracted through the atmosphere and allows some light to hit the Moon. The actual brightness of the Moon during totality can vary so it is best to use multiple exposure times. The values in the table below are estimates and serve as a general guide only. Film is cheap, experiment with various exposure times and you're far more likely to get at least a few good images. Be sure to mark down what exposure time was used on each picture so that you can apply that knowledge to the next eclipse.

Event	ASA 100	ASA200	ASA 400	ASA 800
Full Moon	1/250 f/11	1/250 f/16	1/250 f/22	1/500 f/22
Penumbra Shadow	1/60 f/11	1/60 f/16	1/125 f/16	1/250 f/16
2nd and 3rd contact	1 f/2.8	1 f/4	1/4 f/2.8	1/8 f/2.8
Totality	2 f/2	2 f/2.8	1 f/2.8	1/2 f/2.8

For more detailed lunar eclipse photography information check out: http://www.mreclipse.com/LEphoto/LEphoto.html.

Constellations

The Solar System