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Lunar eclipse phases

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This was the total lunar eclipse of 1996 as seen from the Netherlands. I took a serie of 24 photos of the eclipse and "summarised" it in these 7 phases. The total elapsed time from left (full moon) to right (full eclipse) was about 2 hours.

For this purpose I removed the lens of my camera and I used my telescope (with primary focal length of 1200mm) as a giant zoomlens (with a special adapter). The resulting magnification was 24x. To compensate for the rotation of the earth around its axis, I used a special motor to have my telescope mimic the earth's rotation, so the moon remained stationary in the view. Without this compensation, all photos would become blurred at this high magnification.

The colors are natural, no adjustments made. The red color was caused by the earth reflection of sunlight onto the dark part of the moon (similar effects during sunsets). With the naked eye this red color was very faint and had a "rusty" color. I increased the exposure times from phase 5 to capture this red glow.

Exposure times:
Phase 1, 2, 3: 1 sec
Phase 4: 2 secs
Phase 5: 4 secs
Phase 6: 6 secs
Phase 7: 30 secs (full eclipse)

Pentax MV
Using a Meade reflector as a giant zoomlens full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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archit 04-Nov-2006 10:34
nice one dear

congrats !!!!!
all the best
with love archit

archit india
Kitei 01-Jul-2006 17:23
Magnificent. I've never seem such clear and close up moon eclipse in my life. It's awesome.
Thanks for sharing your journal in photos with us and compliment to your superb shooting skill and equipments.
Guest 23-Oct-2005 15:28
Simply amazing!!
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