Chris Mann’s Island Blog

Last night there was a total eclipse of the Moon - when the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow and turns a deep coppery red colour for about an hour, with the Moon’s face being partially obscured for a couple of hours either side of that time.

The eclipse was best seen from Europe and the Middle East, but I did manage to see it here and take a couple of photographs, although the Moon was coming out of the Earth’s shadow by the time it rose high enough above the horizon for a clear shot.

Since I didn’t have a telescope available I had to improvise with standard camera equipment. For this shot I used a Canon 20D and Canon 70-200 F2.8 lens fitted with a Sigma 1.4x teleconverter to give an effective focal length of about 450mm. Exposure was 1/3rd sec at F4 and ISO 1600. The camera was on a tripod. I would have preferred to use a longer exposure and a lower ISO but it was very windy and the tripod was not heavy enough to prevent camera shake. Even so, I’m happy with this as a snapshot of a not too common astronomical event.