Lunar Eclipse, 15 June 2011 - Pretoria, South Africa

"The drama that unfolds when the moon slowly becomes a bright copper red ball during full moon is an experience not to miss." - Chris Lombaard
 

"Moon Strip" - Lunar Eclipse June 15, 2011, Chris Lombaard

The story:

There are very few astronomical events that capture the attention quite like a solar and lunar eclipse.  And so it happened that the universe would orchestrate such a spectacle on June 15th 2011 over the night skies of Southern Africa. Other parts of the world including Central and East Africa, Madagascar, Middle East and West Australia could also observe.

I have observed in my lifetime so far five lunar eclipses of which two were total lunar eclipses.  The drama that unfolds when the moon slowly becomes a bright copper red ball during full moon is an experience not to miss.  It is after all free of charge.  Just remember your hot cup of coffee or tea, a nice blanket and good company with friends and family to share the occasion during winter.

The event started at 20:30pm local time with a very faint shadow appearing on the right side of the full moon disk. Over the next four hours the shadow moved across the moon from right to left and transformed it into something that resembles the very fabric of fairy tales. Greatest occultation took place around midnight.

...

Enough already and let us get on with how I took part in the event. Let me rather leave the story telling for another day.

Preparation:

Since this was the first lunar eclipse that I attempted to photograph, I realised that careful planning for this event was required.  There is a saying: "Failure to plan, is planning to fail!".  On my first ever attempt at this, I wanted to increase my odds of success by eliminating as many variables and unknowns.

Although planning helps a lot on the day some things just has to be worked out as they present themselves.

The following was a list of things I had to get organised, worked out and test before the night of the eclipse:

• Q: What equipment do I need and have for the job at hand?
• A:  Tripod, Nikon D5000 with extra battery pack, Two memory cards, Shutter release cable for long-term exposure (Sure helps for those cold fingers).
• A: Binoculars to enjoy the event and give friends and family an enjoyable experience.
• A: (Optional) A laptop with tethering data cable to download and preview photos as they are taken. Managed to get this configuration tested a few hours before the event took place.  It turned out to be of tremendous help to ease the strain on my neck when bending over backwards to use the camera's LCD preview window while mounted onto the tripod.
• Q: How do I set up the camera to take the best picture with the changing light conditions?
• A: Did some reading on a few other blogs about the exposure and aperture setting [2, 3].  Thanks guys.   This was very helpful as the light conditions change so quickly during the eclipse and for a first timer I can but humble myself and learn from the voices of giants.  The best measurement in the end is the result.  I kept on playing with these settings during the occultation. Leaving the aperture fixed made things easier.
• Q: Where is the subject in this case the moon going to rise, transit and set? Where is the lunar eclipse starting in the sky? Where is totality taking place?
• A: Referred to the data sheet from NASA Eclipse website - [1]
• Note: I tried to gather this information to estimate where the moon would be. The best location to set up my tripod was done the night before to ensure that I at least don't have street lights, trees and buildings obscuring the moon. These objects can be used to frame the foreground if desired.  For this night, I did not want to take any chances in missing any part of the event and made sure I can always follow the moon during the event.
• Q: What is the weather going to be like?
• A: A seven day forecast showed clear skies with chances of a cold front moving through two days beforehand. Forecast also warned of cold conditions below 3 degrees Centigrade.

The gear:

When I have more time, I will provide a blog entry to show the equipment I used.  A short itinerary given below:

1. Tripod
2. DSLR Nikon D5000 with backup Li-ion battery pack and two SD memory cards
3. Laptop Dell D620 with Ubuntu 11.04.
4. Software: gphoto tethering software, GIMP
5. Cable release
6. Binoculars
7. Small table and chair with alarm clock and stop watch (long time exposure aid)
8. Hot coffee ;)

The pictures:

So at last here are some pictures composed using GIMP [3].

"Moon Circled" - Lunar Eclipse June 15, 2011, Chris Lombaard

"Not those trees again!" - Lunar Eclipse June 15, 2011, Chris Lombaard

"Red-eyed Star field Beauty" - Lunar Eclipse June 15, 2011, Chris Lombaard

Exposure Data:

• Lens: Nikon 70-300mm AF-D G f/4.0-f/5.6 Zoom lens
• Focal Length: 70mm
• F/stop: f/5.0
• Exposure: 1 Single frame – 30 second exposure
• ISO: 400
• Camera: Nikon D5000 DSLR
• Mode: Raw + JPEG
• White Balance: Auto
• In-Camera Noise Reduction: Low gain up
• Filter: None
• Mount: Fixed Tripod
• Date: June 15, 2011
• Start Time: 22:07:32 SAST
• Location: Pretoria, South Africa
• Calibration: None
• Processing: Gimp 2.8

"The Setup" - Lunar Eclipse June 15, 2011, Chris Lombaard

Conclusion:

Of the whole experience I can't stress enough how planning and research ahead of time helped me be prepared for the night of the eclipse.  I made many a mistake which turned out to be valuable lessons.

Lastly, I can say that sharing such an event with my family and friends was for me more valuable than the pictures produced afterwards.  Those are the memories that fill one's life.  Big thank you to my dad for inspiring me!

References:

[1] - For complete details on eclipses go to NASA Eclipse Website
[2] - Mr. Eclipse Website by Fred Espenak 
[3] - GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program
[4] - Catching the Light - Astrophotography by http://www.astropix.com/