Submitted by: LUFHISSA ((GERENCIA PLANTA)) (gerenciaplanta@lufhissa.com) [5 Nov 04]
I am sending you a picture of the last lunar eclipse. The picture was taken with a Coolpix 5400 and an adapter and uwa18mm eyepiece scopetronix with an ETX 125 in polar wedge.
Submitted by: Graham, John L (Graham@udri.udayton.edu) [5 Nov 04]
The weather here was pretty socked in for the recent total lunar eclipse on the evening of October 27-28 and I was sure it was going to be a wash. However, I stepped outside about a quarter after eleven and found the clouds were thinning so I hurriedly mounted my 4.5" f/4 on my Meade DS-2130's mount, strung a USB cable out through my garage door, and in a few minutes had my Meade LPI set up and running. Attached are three examples taken at 23h43m (just 1 minute before the end of totality), 00h30m (the Moon's a little more than half way out of the Earth's shadow) and 01h00m (6 minutes after leaving the umbra). I stayed up until 1:30 hoping to get a picture of the Full Moon, but the LPI was so sensitive the images were still showing the faint outer penumbra. Each of these pictures is a composite of two frames; one covering the northern hemisphere the other the southern. Each frame is an average of 10 source images.
Submitted by: millers18@att.net [5 Nov 04]
By now I'm sure you have dozens of images of the October 27 2004 total lunar eclipse. I hope you'll find the attached photos acceptable for your site. I have been waiting for this eclipse for over a year. The first time I tried to photograph a total lunar eclipse with my ETX 60 was May 15 2003. The skies were clear that night but I did not prepare well enough and had to move the scope a few times because the moon was obscured by telephone poles and trees. Additionally I was not familiar with my camera and I was not satisfied with the pictures I took. I was better prepared for the November 8 2003 total lunar eclipse, and I set up my ETX 125 for the event, but all of totality was obscured by high clouds. This would be my last chance until 2007 to get a picture of totality and it looked like it was going to be a wash it started raining heavily that morning and it was still raining at sunset. At moonrise the sky started to clear, but there were still some scattered showers. Twice I set up the ETX 60 and hunkered over it with an umbrella. It started raining so I gave up after a few minutes because I was afraid the rain would short out the scope and ruin the coatings on the objective. I took it in the house and did a "fake" alt/azimuth easy alignment and let it track the moon, hoping that the rain would stop long enough to get a picture of totality. Theoretically, I should be able to take the scope outside, point it at the moon and it should track just fine. After about 20 minutes the rain stopped and the sky cleared. I ran outside with the scope and started taking pictures within five minutes. The little ETX 60 tracked perfectly for over 2 hours! The sky was steady and the scope acquired a heavy coat of dew but the Meade dew shield kept the objective clear through the whole session. Here are the details on the attached photos: All photos taken from Spring Valley, CA with ETX 60, Nikon Coolpix 4500, ScopeTronix Digi-T adapter & 28 mm T-Ring, Orion Exlorer II 21mm to 7mm zoom eyepiece. #1: U2 Eclipse Phase - totality. 4 images @ 4 sec f/7.4 ISO 400 stacked in Adobe Photoshop & flipped horizontally to correct orientation. 21mm - 50% zoom. #2: Beginning of U3 Eclipse Phase - end of totality. Stack 1: 5 images @ 2 sec f/6 ISO 400 stacked in Adobe Photoshop & flipped horizontally to correct orientation. 21mm - 0% zoom. #3: Beginning of U3 Eclipse Phase - end of totality 5 images @ 2 sec f/6 ISO 400 stacked in Adobe Photoshop & flipped horizontally to correct orientation. 21mm - 50% zoom. #4: 50% of U3 Eclipse Phase - end of partial eclipse. 3 images @ 1/4 sec f/6 ISO 200, Parks ND 50 filter, stacked in Adobe Photoshop & flipped horizontally to correct orientation. 15mm - 50% zoom. #5: Almost U4 Eclipse Phase - end of partial eclipse. 3 images @ 1/4 sec f/7 ISO 100, Parks ND 50 filter, stacked in Adobe Photoshop & flipped horizontally to correct orientation. 15mm - 50% zoom. You have a great website Mike. Keep up the good work.