2007 total lunar eclipse from Oakland, California

:: Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 @ 4:33:36 am

:: Tags: Environment, Photo

total lunar eclipse on august 28, 2007

Instead of going to sleep, I stayed up and photographed tonight’s total lunar eclipse (here’s a cool animation of the eclipse as seen from Earth). The photos above were taken from the 4th story rooftop of my building in downtown Oakland, California. The first frame was taken at around 02:30 PDT and the last frame at 03:30 PDT, just before the middle of the moon’s full coverage.

All photos were taken with a Canon 1Ds Mk II and Canon 600mm f4L IS lens (thanks, Al!). I experimented with using a 2x tele-converter as well, but the darkest point of the eclipse required more than 1 sec @ f8, ISO 1600 for a proper exposure. Without the converter, I was able to shoot at 1/2 sec @ f4. Because my good ball head is currently being fixed, I didn’t have a good way to secure the camera and lens combo, which together weigh around 15 lbs. I had to use a video head, which was a huge hassle. Oh well.

UPDATE: I made the three-moon image into a desktop background, which you can download here: [1440x900] [1024x768]

| Popularity: 4% | Oakland, CA | link | trackback | Aug 28, 2007 04:33:36

:: 13 comments (rss)

1. posted by al vinjamur on Tue, August 28, 2007 @ 8:15 am

   oye!

2. posted by Frozen in Time » Blog Archive » 365 Days #314 - Lunar Eclipse on Tue, August 28, 2007 @ 11:10 am

   [...] Yes, I drug my husband out of bed with me at 2:45 am MST (in Arizona we stay on Standard time all year) to watch the lunar eclipse. I don’t really have the best equipment to take photos of the moon, but you get the idea. For a really beautiful shot, go here. [...]

3. posted by norm on Tue, August 28, 2007 @ 11:17 am

   That is awesome. I cant believe I didn’t go look at it live.

4. posted by cyn on Tue, August 28, 2007 @ 1:18 pm

   gorgeous and awe-inspiring.

   thanks for that, eric! i’m glad someone can stay up that late, i can’t any more! ;*)

5. posted by davepatchen on Tue, August 28, 2007 @ 2:00 pm

   I knew the moon was made of more of an orange cheese instead of blue.

6. posted by tanthalas on Wed, August 29, 2007 @ 2:36 am

   Thanks for the photos (and are there more?). I managed to get a nice view of it from the window of my own room last night. Too bad the light pollution here in SSF didn’t make it look all too clear. :(

7. posted by randomguru on Wed, August 29, 2007 @ 10:30 am

   awesome! glad you capture that in a big way… i did see it because i couldn’t sleep! insomnia…

8. posted by wendy on Thu, August 30, 2007 @ 12:14 am

   those turned out really well! i just set them as my desktop background. is that a handwriting font you’re using? (i know it isn’t your handwriting) veird.

9. posted by Did You Miss the Lunar Eclipse? Gorgeous Photos from Eric. « Psychohistory on Thu, August 30, 2007 @ 11:16 pm

   [...] full post on how he took them is here.  His web gallery, where you can buy his more famous prints, is here.  Full data from NASA on the [...]

10. posted by Adam Nash on Thu, August 30, 2007 @ 11:16 pm

    I featured these on my blog tonight. Any chance you’ll get these developed? This would make a super poster for the office.

    Adam

11. posted by echeng on Fri, August 31, 2007 @ 12:07 am

    Hey, Adam. I’ll have to check out the high-res. I shot at ISO 1600, so they might be a bit noisy for a huge print.

    Only one way to find out. :)

12. posted by Heidi on Fri, August 31, 2007 @ 2:13 pm

    Uuuuhhhh… there was a lunar eclipse this week? Pardon me as I crawl out from this very large rock.

13. posted by Around the web | alexking.org on Mon, September 03, 2007 @ 1:12 pm

    [...] 2007 total lunar eclipse from Oakland, California - awesome. [...]

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