10.09.2014

blood moon lunar eclipse


yesterday morning [Taiwan time] the internet was flooded with talk of the upcoming "blood moon" lunar eclipse. the last eclipse was not visible at all from Taiwan, so I really wanted to try seeing this one and shooting some photos. [the next one visible here isn't until 2018!]

according to the internet, the eclipse would be happening between 6:30 and 7:30pm. normally, we would be at the gym during that time on wednesdays. but a series of events led us to cancel our gym plans and re-create In-N-Out Burger's animal style fries for dinner instead. #sorrynotsorry


I went up to our rooftop just before the peak of the eclipse. to the bare eye, the moon didn't look all that red. but I was dealing with a lot of light pollution [and some regular Taiwan haze.] if I had more notice, I probably would have tried to scoot out into the hills somewhere to shoot away from the light. the situation was a bit of a challenge. BUT it was something really interesting to see, and I would probably have been happy even if all my photos didn't turn out.


this shot above was an 8 second exposure, while the rest in this post are 2 seconds. I shot everything at ISO100 and f/2 with my 50mm lens. ideally, you would want more of a zoom lens [200mm or maybe more] to shoot the moon. I wasn't able to get a lot of detail, but when I crop the heck out of the photo you can kind of see some craters.

it was also really windy. I set up my tripod and started shooting, while keeping a hand close in case it decided to tip over. I definitely had some issues with camera shake and focusing. the tripod was definitely a must! I used the 2 second self timer to help keep my hand from adding to the problem.


I really love that while I was watching the eclipse wednesday night from Taiwan, others [maybe you?] were watching wednesday morning from elsewhere in the world. don't laugh, I think about those kinds of things a lot. were you able to see the eclipse where you were? did you get some good photos?

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