Lunar Eclipse, December 2010

The clouds cleared for a large portion of the total lunar eclipse and I was able to try some shots. I did not have my Astrotrac set up for tracking, so I was limited to using some very high ISO settings. As a result, the noise reduction required in post processing took out a large amount of detail. 2 of the shots shown were done using a manual focus Pentax 400mm f/5.6 lens mounted via an adapter. This lens was purchased for astrophotography type shooting, and this was the first chance I had to try it out on anything in the night sky.

Unfortunately, my camera's clock was still set to daylight savings time, so the times show as 1 hour later than they really were.

Total Eclipse
A wider shot of the moon in total eclipse. The orange color comes from the light of sunsets around the circumference of the earth being scattered back onto the face of the moon as orange colored illumination.
Total Eclipse Closeup
This was shot with a Pentax manual focus 400 f/5.6 mounted to my 40D via adapter. The orange color is very dramatic in this view.
The Beginning of The End
The edge of the moon brightens as the moon begins to pass out of the earth's umbra.