gotta go fast! Dan's quick and dirty guide to shooting the Total Lunar Eclipse on Nov 7-8 2022 (which by the way will be the last Total Lunar for quite some timeeeee)
Aloha and welcome. You must be here because like most people, you waited until the last minute to do something. Or maybe you are just genuinely curious and had no idea there is a Total Lunar Eclipse coming up. Idk. Whatever it is, welcome, thanks for being here.
This guide is going to be a crash course let’s call it in planning and viewing/shooting the Total Lunar Eclipse from the evening of November 7th into the morning of November 8th. I don’t have much time, and neither do you, so let’s just right into it! (Also did not have a chance to proofread this yet haha yeah gotta move people let’s goooo)
What is a “Total” Lunar Eclipse
This is what makes the world go round. Well not really, but the Total Eclipse is the one you want to capture. First let’s define what a Lunar Eclipse is. When the Earth is positioned between the Sun and the Moon, the “shadow” of the Earth projects upon the Moon. Known as the penumbra as the outer shadow and umbra as the inner shadow. This alignment can vary ever so slightly as the Earth is much larger than the Moon as therefore 3 types of Lunar Eclipses can occur:
Penumbral — this is where the Earth’s penumbra essentially “dims” the Moon.
Partial — this is where the umbra starts to actually eclipse the Moon
Total — this is where the umbra completely engulfs the Moon, causing the “Blood Moon” this is the one you want and the one we are going to get on Nov 7-8. Total eclipses incorporate the penumbral and partial phases as well.
Image credit and copyright: timeanddate.com
Great now that you know that, we don’t have much time here like none at all, so let’s get to the planning.
Eclipse visibility in your region
A Total Lunar Eclipse composite from the January 2019 Eclipse. This is a “Blood Moon.”
Since you may be reading this in Tokyo, or maybe at a bagel shop in NJ, it is important to realize that the location of the Moon will be different pending where you are located. The best way to figure out where the Eclipse will be is the handy dandy nifty map on timeanddate.com
Click on the map and enter your location in the top right. Then, click on the location you typed in which will bring you to the next screen below.
Ok great, if you end up on this screen, you are doing fine.
So, lemme explain what you are looking at here. All the times on the left are local to the location you typed in. Each timestamp represents a phase of the eclipse. As discussed above, there are a few. On the right, there are some important astronomical attributed to pay attention to.
The direction will be the location in the sky the Moon will be chilling at, the degrees represent North, South, East, West. In astronomy, this is known as the azimuth. If you pull up the compass app on your phone you can match the degree markings on time and date to the cardinal point they correspond to. The altitude will be how high the Moon is above, and also below, the horizon. In astronomy, this is known as the uhhh altitude.
So in my example, the Blood Moon will occur at 5:16 local time due 279º west. As the eclipse continues on, the Moon will actually start setting low on the horizon.
Weather
Ahhh yess here we go. The most frustrating thing ever in the world of astronomy. Since this article is being published so late, you can bet that the weather sources will be pretty accurate for eclipse day. My recommendation for weather sources are your region’s federally funded entities. For me, that would be the National Weather Service. It still would not hurt to cross check your weather with an additional source such as Astrospheric. Click on the links to type in your location and see what you have.
NWS says it is clear for me!
Astrospheric is saying clear is also a good possibility!
Keep an eye on the weather, and have a backup plan if it changes!
If all you want to do is VIEW the Eclipse, you are all set. This next portion will be dedicated to those with those shiny camera thingies.
Photographers, you need a things you are most likely already familiar with to make some magic.
Your camera and whatever lens you have (can be wide, can be telephoto, it just depends what kind of shot you want)
A good sturdy tripod
A remote trigger or your camera’s built in self timer function
Optional: star tracker
And that is mainly it, now let’s talk how you can plan this shot using the tools discussed above as well as an app like Planit Pro or Photopills.
Compositions
After figuring out where the Eclipse is in your sky, you may want to think about how you want to shoot it before you even drive out to location. In my scenario, the Eclipse is low on the horizon, so my goal is to pair the Moon juxtaposed with a landscape feature. This means shooting a little bit wider and trying to capture a foreground all in one shot. I can use Planit to figure this out, now watch this drive:
Ok great so I typed in a location I think might work for the Eclipse which features a foreground element. I scrolled over to the Eclipses tab and had Planit give me all of the info I need to know for this Eclipse.
Then I popped into the VR mode and toyed around with focal lengths. As you can see here, this shot looks decent at 50mm, but keep in mind the size of the Moon. It is not nearly as big as just a single close up 500mm shot.
This also of course works for landscapes too. I don’t really like buildings anyway. Here is an example of a mountain I want to hike for it, shot at 85mm.
Next onto the full disc image. This is where using a free tool like Stellarium is nifty af. You can punch in your camera lens, sensor size, etc and know exactly how large the Moon will appear in the sky, coupled with all the other details above like altitude and azimuth.
Here is an example of my telescope setup with my astrocam in Stellarium. Note all of the data on the sides. Good stuff here to help you plan.
Ok great done, your shot is planned, now how do you shoot it?
Shooting
Ok still gotta go fast so let’s run through a checklist of how to shoot this thing.
Place your camera on your tripod.
Point your camera at the Moon. I think this one should be pretty easy to find.
Start with a reasonably fast shutter speed, say 1/250 of a second. Pending many factors, this may be too bright or too dark, but it is a good starting point as the Moon moves very quickly and we want to freeze the motion.
Start by adjusting your aperture to its widest.
Compensate with the ISO to achieve a median exposure on the histogram.
Shoot and see what you get. The Moon’s edges also show some chromatic aberration, so if you notice a significant amount then stop down to a narrower aperture. Then, use the ISO to compensate.
Shoot as many shots as possible. Stacking is ideal here for more detail.
Vary your shutter speed enough so you can ensure you have captured enough details for post processing as well as compensation for under/overexposure.
Landscapies may need to also shoot an additional shot with a longgggg shutter speed and low ISO to capture detail in the foreground which can be masked in post.
Now let’s do it with a tracker:
This is a more advanced technique, so if you have no idea what this is, just ignore. Star trackers also have a Lunar mode, pending the make. You will want to use this. Follow the same steps as above, but this time align your tracker and:
You can most likely drop your ISO down pretty low.
Your shutter speeds may vary between 10 seconds to 1 minute pending your focal length, and polar alignment accuracy.
Because of the tracker advantage, use the most ideal aperture for your lens. Many have a sweet spot around f/8 or f/11 to achieve maximum sharpness.
Shoot as many frames as possible so you can stack.
For landscapies, turn the tracker off and shoot another shot for your foreground as it will be blurry from the tracker exposure.
Holy smokes is that it? Yeah that is it. Yes, this is quick, sure I may have missed a beat or 2 or 3, and if you have any questions or clarifications, please let me know.