While driving to work this morning I heard about the upcoming Luna Eclipse tonight for us in Australia (not sure if or what time other county’s will get it)
http://www.dacre.net/moon/eclipseframe.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22318761-2,00.html

I’d like to have a go at photographing it so was hoping for some suggestions I know that photographing anything involving the sun can be very dangerous with a D-SLR camera so I think I’ll have to setup early and perhaps use a hit and miss approach to get things setup looking at the photos on the LCD after to see if I’ve got a good shot.

I’ll be using my new tripod and a remote to trigger the shutter I’m still undecided what lens to use a wide angle would likely make the moon / sun to far away so I think I might stick with my 200mm.

Any suggestions welcome is anyone else going to give it a go or have you in the past

Cheers

Isn't it Lunar Eclipse?

A Lunar eclipes doesn't show the Sun. Its the Moon entering Earths shadow, making the mood turn red. So no Sun to worry about.
Though if you do take some pictures, should share them. I can't pictures at night with my camera...
Just hope I can even see it...looks like it might be cloudy where I am...

I hope is not cloudy where I am I live quite a long way from any towns or street lights so it should be good viewing I hope.

Yeah I know the sun is going behind the moon an all I was still a little worried about my eyes through the viewfinder getting damaged . .can't wait for it should be fun.

Note to self put camera on charge when you home

The Sun isn't behind the Moon. Thats a Solar Eclipes. This is Lunar, only involves the Moon

Well it did not all come together as well as I’d hoped it was cloudy so I only got a few clean shots it was really a learning exercise for me I found that anything over the 2 second exposure came out soft or blurry because of the planets moving.

I also wish I had a longer lens but you have to work with what you have did anybody else have a go or have you in the past ?

The last one looks amazing!

Here are a few from me... I'm not sure why there's blur on all of them, as the camera was on the tripod and I didn't move it during exposure at all. I was using long exposure so that I could use a low ISO to reduce noise. Either way, here they are.

Very nice, its so beautiful.

Very nice! I need to get a tripod .

Nice work gigapixels
What camera / lens did you use I was using 350D with a 200mm and a good tripod and remote to release the stutter I also used centre weighted metering along with a low ISO like you

I used my 75-300mm on my 400D. I ended up with a 30 second shutter time with evaluative metering at ISO 200. I don't have a remote

I highly recommend the wired remote I use it a lot at night time and even during the day it makes things so easy when your camera is on a tripod you can just hold it in your hand it use it while looking through the camera.

30 seconds wow all mine where way to blured at that amount of time I had a couple where the moon had moved so much it almost looked like two moons next to each other I think those where my bulb exposures (another cool function of the remote)

How do you find the 300mm I was thinking of upgrading I’ll get a nicer wide angle first then a zoom like yours

accesser - Your last one is great. Very nice

gigapixels - I like your first one. Great shots

I took some pictures, but mine aren't very good...I'm using a hp 435. ( http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/H...era-Review-.htm ). Mine are fuzzy with background noise...lol In the next 3 months I plan to buy a new camera.
All of mine were small too...the moon was always really small...zooming (5x digital zoom) didn't help to much. I even put he camera to my binoculars lol

great shots though!

I definitely want to get a remote, I'm just a bit short on spending money right now.

And you know what, I just realized those weren't the 30 second exposure ones. Those were too blurry for me as well. The first two I posted are 6 seconds at 400 ISO, and the third is 10 seconds at 200 ISO. They were all at f/5.6 aperture.

I personally love my 300mm lens. It does an excellent job for such an inexpensive lens. If you want a good zoom lens but don't want to spend too much, it's a great deal.

And thanks for the kinds words ncc50446

gigapixels,
Your photos are blurred because the earth rotates. You can see a short star trail in the top lefthand corner of your last photo. If your shot is more than a few second long you need to have tracking on your camera. for even longer shots you need to track the moon seperately to the stars because of its motion.
Don't feel too bad at least you were thinking about how to get the best from your camera. Unfortunately you added a new prolem trying to address the noise issue.

I've added a couple of my own shots using a pentax 3x optical zoom point and shoot. 4 seconds for the eclipse photos and about 1/100th second for a freehand photo down the eyepiece of my telescope. You do mess up a lot of shot free hand, but you can shoot as many as you like and just keep the ones that work.

Cheers.

Its always good when you learn something from your photos
Welcome new member DrGeoff