Total Eclipse of December 2010

Tonight I had the opportunity to witness a very special treat. There was a total lunar eclipse. Although they aren’t that rare, for one to occur during the winter solstice is. The last time one occurred was said to be on December 21, 1638. It was a beautiful event. I also used this opportunity to expand upon my photography. With my camera and tripod in hand, I headed up to the roof of my apartment complex and setup for the night.

The eclipse began close to 1am. The whole event lasted till about 4am in the morning. Unfortunately there were clouds that effected the quality of the images. I think overall they were pretty good. I could have used a little more zoom on my lens, but it did the job.

I shot the pics with a Canon 5D Mark II with the EF 70-200mm L lens. The shots were a little difficult because the moon was almost directly overhead. Luckily I was able to use a fast enough shutter speed in the beginning to take the pics by hand. Once the sun was completely blocked from the moon there wasn’t much light. I was forced to use a tripod and my remote shutter release to capture the moon going orange. It was well worth it.

I want to eventually do something artistic with the composition of the pics, but in the mean time here are some that are pretty much straight from the camera. The only processing done was to crop them. I hope you enjoy!!! 🙂

*UPDATE* The photos for some reason aren’t in the correct order of how it occurred. I’ll have to mess with it later and see why it is doing that. Looks like they are backwards.

*UPDATE* Figured it out. They should now be in the correct order.

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