Saturday 17 December 2011

Total Lunar Eclipse

I was up early on the morning of Dec 10th 2011.  I often do this on my days off as switching back and forth between working nights and having weekends like a normal person is not easy.  I was also listening ot the radio stream from CBC and the news happened to mention that western Canada and the US would be getting a good view of the Lunar Eclipse.  It was frosty and clear outside and I was up at the right time so I grabbed my camera, put on a hat and set up the tripod outside.

Even with a tripod things move.  With the long exposures I was using the wobble becomes pronounces.  Of 90 shots I took over the course of the 45 min I was outside only 10 were steady.  I quickly found out that standing anywhere near the camera as the shutter released caused the image to blur.  My breathing and my body moving back and forth were the culptrits.  I tried standing really still and holdimg my breath, but that wasn't good enough.  I had to walk away from the camera and lean against the house while not breathing and hope that my automatic shutter release would work.  (It sometimes sticks and i have to turn the camera off and back on to reset it).

Anyway.. here are the 10 shots.