After finding out about tonight’s eclipse earlier today, I started wondering if I could get any halfway decent shots of it. Since the camera I’m using allows longer exposures (up to eight seconds), I figured it’d be worth a shot.
First priority, though, was a tripod, as there was no way I was going to be able to hold my hands perfectly steady through an eight second exposure. I swung through the Kit’s Camera after work, picked up a cheap-but-functional tripod (the Quantaray QXS 2001, for \$19.99), and declared myself ready to go.
Once the eclipse started and the moon rose enough that I could see it over the buildings, I climbed up the fire escape to the roof of my building and started experimenting. It took some fiddling around before I got something useable — it’s been far too many years since I took a photography class, and I really haven’t got a clue about f-stops, apertures, or any of the rest of that professional mumbo-jumbo — but eventually, I managed to get a few that were decent. Not great — but decent (hey, a 3X zoom lens can only get you so close…).
Still, I’m rather happy with them — and I’ve got until 2007 to practice for the next lunar eclipse, anyway. ;)
“Ain’t Necessarily So” by Bronski Beat from the album Singles Collection 1984-1990, The (1990, 4:08).