A sort of a bird! Lunar Eclipse

[gail bisson]

This is my favorite shot from the lunar eclipse last night. I am mostly a bird photographer so was really chuffed to see something with wings enter the picture! You can also see the contrail behind the jet.
I was very lucky to capture this and thank the photography gods for giving me the opportunity to get this image! I initially thought a bat had flown across my field of view and it was pure reflex that kicked in when I pressed the shutter.
Taken in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Plane is on its way to Europe- still trying to figure out exactly what flight it was via flight tracker.
canon 1DX 600mm
ISO 640 F 10 SS 1/500 My settings are wonky because I had just set up the camera and was fooling around with the settings when this plane flew by.
Very little PP : Crop, clarity slider in LR5 then DE at 10% to moon. USM to JPEG. Nothing added or cloned.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.
Gail
Any help to process this better is greatly appreciated because I am not skilled in this type of photography

[David Cowling]

Nice catch Gail! A second later and you would have missed it. Thanks for sharing.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gail - great timing and the plane adds to the image. Nice sharpness. Funny, intuitively probably from looking at flat maps, I would expect the moon to be in the northern sky and a plane flying to Europe from Canada to be facing to the right. :eek3:

TFS,
Rachel

[gail bisson]

Hi Rachel,
I was facing south with the east to my left. The flight is Air Canada 658 flying from Halifax to St-John's ,Newfoundland (I think). As per FlightRadar24 it was the only trackable plane heading ENE during the 15 minute window that I took this image. Good fun to figure this out!
Gail

[Diane Miller]

Excellent!!! 600mm is just right for the moon. Adding a 1.4 or 2X is great, but cropping gives about the same IQ. I usually do what I can with the Shadows and Highlight sliders and some Clarity, and have a look at Detail Extractor, but it's easy to go too far on that route. Where you ended up looks fine to me. Most astrophotography is so "stretched" from a dim capture that there are no guidelines, but the moon is bright enough to have some constraints of reality.

[Don Railton]

Love this Gail..!! Very sharp, great timing/reflex. Maybe the hot side of the moon could be pulled back just touch but thats nit picking..

DON

[Hazel Grant]

All of the above. What a delight you must have felt when you first realized what you had! Congrats!

[dankearl]

Excellent...... one of the best Blood Moon shots I have seen and there were millions....

[Jerry van Dijk]

Despite your 'wonky' settings, this is an excellent capture of the partially eclipsed moon! The plane is a great bonus of course! I would have preferred the plane to be slightly further away from the shadow on the moon, but that's a very minor detail.
Just wondering whether you knew the plane was going to be there in advance, or you only found this information afterwards. In the first case, I'm very impressed by your planning skills!

[gail bisson]

Hi Jerry,
I did not know the plane was going to be there in advance. It was pure luck. I have been able to figure out via Flightradar24 and flightracker that this flight was Air Canada 658 from Halifax to St-John's Newfoundland. I am still awaiting confirmation from AC but am quite confident that I am correct.There was only 1 plane over Cape Breton going in the right direction at this time.
I too wish the plane had been more to the right but am still thrilled that I got this. Thanks for commenting.
Gail
QUOTE=Jerry van Dijk;1088109]Despite your 'wonky' settings, this is an excellent capture of the partially eclipsed moon! The plane is a great bonus of course! I would have preferred the plane to be slightly further away from the shadow on the moon, but that's a very minor detail.
Just wondering whether you knew the plane was going to be there in advance, or you only found this information afterwards. In the first case, I'm very impressed by your planning skills![/QUOTE]

[Jerry van Dijk]

All the more amazing that you were able to capture this! Very well done.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Love this one Gail...great capture :)