Monday 28 September 2015

Lunar eclipse...

A series of shots taken back in 2015, my first astrophotos in over 5 years, what with house moves, work and life in general, etc etc...

01.10 BST

Date: 28 September 2015
Equipment: Canon 450D, Vixen ED 114mm aperture f5.3 refractor
Subframes: 16 x 1/4000s @ ISO400, stacked and sharpened in Registax 2.1.14

02.35 BST

Date: 28 September 2015
Equipment: Canon 450D, Vixen ED 114mm aperture f5.3 refractor
Subframes: 16 x 1/1600s @ ISO400, stacked and sharpened in Registax 2.1.14

03.05 BST

Date: 28 September 2015
Equipment: Canon 450D, Vixen ED 114mm aperture f5.3 refractor
Subframes: 16 x 1/5s @ ISO800, stacked and sharpened in Registax 2.1.14

03.50 BST: maximum eclipse

Date: 28 September 2015
Equipment: Canon 450D, Vixen ED 114mm aperture f5.3 refractor
Subframes: 20 x 1/2s @ ISO800, stacked and sharpened in Registax 2.1.14

04.30 BST

Date: 28 September 2015
Equipment: Canon 450D, Vixen ED 114mm aperture f5.3 refractor
Subframes: 16 x 1/5s @ ISO800, stacked and sharpened in Registax 2.1.14.

This single 5 second exposure at ISO800 at 03.50 captures the surrounding stars in Pisces down to 11.5 magnitude:


I couldn't capture the exit of the moon from the Earth's umbral shadow as it went behind my house. Bad planning on my part.

The next total lunar eclipse visible from the UK will be during the early morning of 21st. January 2019. Exact times will depend upon your location, but will be approximately as follows:

Moon enters penumbra:  02:30
Moon enters umbra:       03:30
Start of totality:              04:40
Maximum eclipse:          05:10
End of totality:               05:40
Moon leaves umbra:       06:50
Moon leaves penumbra:  07:50