Blood Moon - Tetrad Series 1

[Jon Rista]

The first total lunar eclipse of the current tetrad, imaged on April 14th, 2014, at 1:45am. Exposed for 15 seconds, f/8 ISO 100 by using an Orion Atlas EQ-G tracking mount in lunar tracking time. I've photographed the moon many times before, including eclipses, however this was the first time I'd ever imaged it with a tracking mount. I gathered the entire sequence of the eclipse from first penumbra coverage, through totality, to the last penumbra coverage.

Canon 7D, Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II (I have the 1.4x and 2x TCs which could have resulted in much greater detail...however for the life of me I couldn't find them that night.)

[Diane Miller]

Enough detail for me!! I love the stars in the field. Well done!

I missed the April eclipse and now don't remember why -- weather, probably. I'm just getting into tracking, with a learning curve to get the equipment to carry big lenses -- the same as yours.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Beautiful detail, lovely work.:S3:

[Don Railton]

Hi Jon

Looks pretty good to me also. I think this has been cropped quite a bit?

DON

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Love the colour of the moon. Too bad you couldn't find the tele's.:S3:

[Jon Rista]

Yeah, I've found the TCs now. The last eclipse we just had was mostly clouded out, so I haven't had a second chance yet. I don't think the next one earlier next year will be very visible from here, the one after that might be another chance.

The image is cropped a bit. Even with the 1.4x TC you need to crop. At 1200mm with the 7D, the moon is getting fairly large, and there isn't as much need to crop. Still, even with the cropping, the tracking allowed a much deeper exposure than I've ever gotten without tracking...so I'm happy cropping. It's still 10x more detailed than any previous eclipse shot I've made. ;)

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jon, lovely as presented. Beautiful work!!!

[Diane Miller]

I'm with you on the tracking, Jon -- I can't wait till next September!