Just a reminder, sensation-seekers: lunar eclipse tonight.
I’m fairly sure that my batting average will remain at a comfortingly-consistent .000 in terms of spotting astronomical events from my location and that there’ll be clouds obscuring my view. All the same, I went out last night with my SLR and a tripod to practice shooting the moon. Not bad. Not great, but definitely not bad.
So tonight’s a good night to be standing in a dark, empty field like a total doofus. If nothing else, it’s a good excuse to mix up a thermos of hot chocolate with rum mixed in. Just do the classy thing and pass out right there under your tripod instead of getting back in the car.
All the information you need (excluding the details on how to beat the public drunkenness rap) is available at NASA’s Eclipse Page. There’s links on where to look (“up,” is my general guideline to you) and even links to pages on how to shoot a lunar eclipse.
Remember, your tax dollars already paid for it (the Moon, that is) so you might as well enjoy it.
When the name of the blog changed, I thought that “Celestial” was just a rhetorical flourish, but I guess it actually does mean “All astronomy, all the time.”
(The big hat protects from space debris.)
hm… Andy, did you write this one in MarsEdit? Your tags are showing at the end of the second paragraph…
More nonsense about some sort of mythological editing typo in the body of the post. Honestly, where do you people come up with these things? I’ve just looked at it and the second paragraph is perfectly fine.
moved from Philly to Tucson, Az, which is noted for having over
300 sunny days, OK? Tonight: Total Clouds! Total Clouds!
And Gruber, in Philly, twits that he has crystal clear skies
needlessly reminding me that life is still not fair.
Andy,
That picture has a nice amount of detail. What was the lense/camera you were using?
@ Mike – Lens? Camera? My dear man, surely you realize that Andy simply wills the image to appear, and it is so.
@Dave – No, that’s how I put the moon up there. The camera was a Nikon D80 with a cheap-ass Sigma 80-300mm zoom maxed up. So factor in the 1.5x conversion from 35mm to digital and it was like using a 450mm.
Hey Andy,
Did you have any success creating the Lunar Eclipse iMovie that you Twittered? I’d like to check it out and see if it’s something we could post on AstroPhoto Insight website.
Clear skies,
Al Degutis
Editor-in-Chief
AstroPhoto Insight Magazine
Thanks for the info Andy!
I believe if it is possible to bring a ladder next time. You can get closer! Better yet backlight one of those museum quality posters of the moon….
That will eliminate the need for hot chocolate and you can go straight for the RUM!