Total Eclipse of the Moon - 3rd March 2007

[Sumanji]

Hey,

Could one of you kind dudes with uber cameras make some lovely wallpaper for us please? 16x12 and 19x12 would be awesome

Cheers,

Suman

[Funkstar]

i got over a hundred shots last night, still got to process them.

Light was coming back to it about midnight up here.

Two thinks i would need in the future is either a bigger lens than my 70-300 or extension tubes and a remote shutter release. For he first time my right angle view finder attachement was really useful.

[Whiternoise]

Darn it.. i've got one of those semi-SLR's (S9500) - but it never seems to want to focus right - and the pictures always end up tiny..

Any advice?

[Funkstar]

What do you mean by 'tiny'?

[g8ina]

Even with a 12x zoom lens, the full moon will look small in a full frame. My shots are not cropped and use a 1000mm lens, so you can see how small cameras not attached to scopes or big lenses might fare. Quite understandable to be frustrated, but astronomers do tend to spend large amounts to get good shots Even my little scope cost me several hundred quid, and previous scopes have set me back over a grand.

A small scope can be had for 200 to 300 but then you need a way of attaching the camera to it. Two main methods : afocal projection - stick the camera with it's own lens up to a scope's eyepiece, or prime focus - only really usable with DSLRs, remove the lens and replace it with the scope.

Google "scopetronix" to show examples of various adaptors. Or for much more detailed info, join http://ukastroimaging.co.uk/forums/

Very nice friendly bunch of imaging astronomers, lots of useful advice.

Turns out my later shots weren't up to much due to the very dim moon. If I'd used a smaller lens, I would have posted but with the 1000mm lens, the moon's motion at 3 or 4 second exposures made the images blurry. Shame

[JPreston]

Darn it.. i've got one of those semi-SLR's (S9500) - but it never seems to want to focus right - and the pictures always end up tiny..

Any advice?

I got some OK ones with my S9600, the best were about as good as Howard's second one above.

Obviously max zoom in, I used a tripod (£9.97 from tesco ) and a cable release, and settings as per recommendation above. Manual zoom worked fine - all you have to do is keep turning the ring in the one direction until it ceases having any effect, i.e. infinite focal distance.

[Whiternoise]

Ah right, thanks.

By tiny i mean about a third of the size of Howards' second one - i guess it's just practice

[JPreston]

Opening the (9MP) pic at 100% in photoshop shows it to be about the same size as above - but if you just open in firefox or whatever then the picture is shrunk down to fit the whole thing on the screen.

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

1440x900

[merdat]

Howard- great pics . infact all you guys pics are good.

Funkstar; Check out Amazon.co.uk for Canon RC-1 Remote Controller. Cost is 12.88. Been meaning to buy one but have not got round to it yet. Would have been ideal for last night.

[g8ina]

Yeah, well done guys

[Funkstar]

Thanks for the sugestion Merdat. Unfortunitely Amazon is listing them at £16.99 with a one to two week delivery. Third party seller wants £14.99+postage.

On eBay they are going for £14.98 inc postage

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sear...-1+&category0=

third party compatibles are cheaper.

[Howard]

I bought a cheapy remote release off ebay, cost like a fiver all in, works perfectly. I see no reason to spend thrice that

[Funkstar]

Still not expensive, and i like to get the branded parts if they are not an unreasonable price

[Howard]

£15 is expensive for a switch

[bsodmike]

wow @ the shots here. 70-200 IS USM f/2.8