On May 15th, a total lunar eclipse will be visible over North America and portions of South America. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth’s shadow, turning the Moon a deep, dark red color. This red color is why some call a lunar eclipse a “blood moon”. During the eclipse, all direct sunlight to the lunar surface is completely blocked out. What little light remains that’s reflected off the lunar surface is turned red by Rayleigh Scattering of blue light by the Earth’s atmosphere. This is similar to the reason why the Sun’s light appears to be yellow in the sky, despite being mostly white as seen from space.
If you’re new to astrophotography, you’re probably looking for ways to actually photograph the eclipse yourself. Now, you can try just using a smartphone to photograph the eclipse; however, you may be disappointed to see that the Moon will appear as nothing more than a red blob in your image. To do better, you’ll preferably need a telescope or a telephoto lens. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to be assuming you already have some sort of digital camera be it a Nikon, Canon, or whichever.
1. Automate your eclipse photography
Our first tip is to find some way to automate your eclipse photography. Now, if you have a MacOS you’re in luck here: a free, readily available software known as Lunar Eclipse Maestro exists that will calculate your exposure time and control your imaging sequence from start to finish, including adjusting the exposure for you, based entirely on your location. Lunar Eclipse Maestro works with most Nikon DSLRs and many Canon DSLRs as well. Be sure to read their website for further information on whether or not your camera is supported. However, be aware that Lunar Eclipse Maestro will only work with versions of MacOS X beginning with Mojave (although High Sierra is not compatible with this software).
Should you use a Windows PC, you’ll have to make do with another way to automate your photography. If you’re programming inclined, you might want to try to create your own XML script with DigiCamControl. Click here to access a script we’ve created as a baseline if you want to experiment more with this. But if you want a more simple setup, and you’re okay with adjusting the exposure manually, you can simply use an intervalometer and adjust the exposure upwards to 2-4 seconds as needed. Doing this should ensure you have nice images of the entire eclipse from start to finish.
2. Find a good foreground object to include in your shot
The next tip on our list is to try to frame up the Moon with an appealing foreground image. This adds more subject matter to your image which makes it more visually appealing. We’ve seen astrophotographers use things like lighthouses, mountains, treelines, and buildings in alignment with the Moon. You can figure out this alignment by using an app such as Photopills, which will aid in your alignment process.
3. Use a focal length between 400-800mm
Number three on our list of tips is to use a focal length anywhere from 400-800mm. The Apertura 72EDR Telescope, for example, has a focal length of 430mm and would be a great choice to frame up the Moon with an APS-C sensor or similar. Astrophotographers with a Schmidt-Cassegrain or longer focal length telescope may wish to consider some sort of focal reducer to fit the entire moon in your field of view. A great focal reducer might include the Celestron f/6.3 Focal Reducer, which reduces your effective focal length by 0.63x. Now if you’re not sure what the Moon will look like at your focal length, we recommend plugging your camera settings into Stellarium with your telescope’s focal length; or check out the astronomy.tools Field of View Calculator.
4. Track at Lunar Rate instead of Sidereal Rate
Number four on our list is to make sure your tracking rate is set to lunar instead of sidereal. Sidereal rate refers to the constant movement of the stars across the sky as the Earth spins about its axis. Although it may appear so at first, the Moon actually doesn’t move at the sidereal rate and instead drifts slightly against the motion of the stars in the sky. This is a challenge should you wish to take a timelapse of the eclipse; you’ll find that the Moon will gradually drift out of the field of view throughout the night. Most tracking mounts feature a lunar tracking rate to compensate for this drift.
5. Take an HDR shot
Our final tip is to take a high dynamic range (HDR) shot. During a total lunar eclipse, there’s a ton of dynamic range going on, especially during the partial eclipse phase. To be able to capture the deep, pale reds of the eclipse with the uneclipsed portion of the Moon, you’ll need to take two different exposures. Take one exposure of the Moon that captures only the uneclipsed portion of the Moon with a relatively fast shutter speed about 15-20 minutes before totality, then quickly take another exposure of at least 2-3 seconds showing the eclipsed portion. Using a program like Photoshop can easily bring the two together into a beautiful HDR image.
Extra Tip: Have Fun!
If this is your first time photographing an eclipse, don’t worry about getting an excellent shot. Just try your best and remember the experience! Seeing a lunar eclipse is a relatively rare experience, and plenty of other astrophotographers online will be documenting the experience. In our experience, the best method to maximize your enjoyment of the eclipse is to keep it simple: don’t worry about automation, shutter speeds, or anything like that. Just have a pair of binoculars, look up, and enjoy the eclipse! But if this is not your first eclipse, we hope that our tips above will help you get an absolutely out-of-this-world shot.
In this video, Kyle shares with you 5 tips to improve your photographs of the upcoming eclipse!
Interested in learning more about the lunar eclipse, astrophotography, or astronomy in general? Check out our Astronomy Hub!
This Article was Last Updated on 07/18/2023
