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| Partial lunar eclipse, approx. 22.15 BST |
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 398865 km (247843 miles)
Date: June 16th, 2019
Equipment: Canon 450D, Celestron NexStar 4
Subframes: Approx 30, ranging from 0.1s to 2s @ ISO800Equipment: Canon 450D, Celestron NexStar 4
The Moon was only 7 degrees above the horizon when I took images for the above composite. The partial eclipse began with the moon entering the Earth's shadow at 9 pm, just as it was appearing above the horizon. Maximum eclipse was at 20.30, with the Moon leaving the Earth's umbral shadow at midnight.
The low altitude meant the focussing was tricky and a lot of lunar detail was blurred by the unsteady atmosphere so close to the horizon, along with some wispy clouds. I took a range of exposures to try and capture details on the illuminated portion of the moon and also to try and show the eclipsed area, whose glow was quite distinct in binoculars.
I used Registax and PaintShop Pro to pull together the best shots from around 30 images taken with various exposures. With a lot of messing around, I managed to combine the image sets into something that resembled the view through binoculars.
