last lunar eclipse for a while...
 

I'm looking at it right now and there is a dark circular shape jutting into the lower left of the moon....

its strange, it looks almost "fizzy" around the edge of the dark spot and i feel like i just looked straight into the sun. oops.

does anybody see a triangle to flashing orbs off side of the moon? They aren't airplanes, but flash, so maybe they are satellites filming this? :dunno:

Some pics...almost snapshotish in lack of quality, as I shot
handheld at 1/5 sec, f9 at ISO 1600, with a not nearly tele lens
of ~80mm.

I hope JCL or another of the posters with some "gear" got a shot.
It was clear here, but ambient light in SW FLA is severe.

NEway, hot off the press, as we used to say...
BR,mD

mD,
Great pics with the lunar eclipse. Thanks for sharing.

Not particularly good shots, but here are some that I got tonight. 85 mm Televue refractor, 600 mm focal length, eyepiece projection with a 20 mm Plossl, Nikon D70 set at ISO800, 1/2 second on a photo tripod. Lots of light from the city, and I didn't wait for the telescope to properly cool down, but just playing around. What was more fun were all the people walking by on the sidewalk; I gave them all a peek and got lots of oohs and ahs. What was really good was the view of Saturn, with rings all visible. Makes me think I should haul out the gear more often. MD: I see you got Saturn in your shots too.

Here are some of my shots taken from my daughter's bedroom window. Had some lens flare problems with a street light that's directly across, even with the lens hood on :banghead: .
Canon 20D and 70-200mm 4.0 L. I wish I had a 600mm like Jeff though.

http://www.humbalang.com/ray/x5world/eclipse1.jpg

http://www.humbalang.com/ray/x5world/eclipse2.jpg

http://www.humbalang.com/ray/x5world/eclipse3.jpg

http://www.humbalang.com/ray/x5world/eclipse4.jpg

I tried to take some pics too. It was very cloudy here, had to wait for a clear spot. This is probably the best one I took. I cropped this out of the original 3008x2000 size file to about 800x600. shot with a Nikon D100, Sigma 100-300 zoom, on a shakey tripod and no cable release :rolleyes: . Damn, I gotta get one of those!

Yes, a sturdy tripod, a cable release, and using mirror lock-up is a must. A shakey tripod is still better than no tripod at all though. Looks like you had the ISO cranked up?

I balanced the scope on a Manfrotto 3233, which is great for a camera, but light for the scope. I got away with it close to the house (no wind). There is no cable release available for my D70, and I didn't want the Nikon remote control; I just use the 10 second self-timer so that vibrations are minimized. I don't have a mirror lock-up on the D70 either, but have never needed it.

A few hot pixels showing?

I really have to get a German equatorial mount. And a proper prime focus adaptor for the DSLR. And a Televue Powermate. Addictive hobby. I think I may have to get back into it.

Yup, the ISO was set to 800. That one was 3.6 seconds at F/6.7. I think this was the shot with the least shake from pressing the shutter. Forgot all about mirror lock-up! Duh... Really wish I had a cable release. Most of my shots show definite camera shake from pressing the shutter button even though I was trying my best to do it gently. Focusing was a problem too. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be and the clouds, darkness and rather small subject in the viewfinder made it even harder.

If I had really been smart I would have hooked my camera up to my sisters' telescope! Oh well, maybe next time...

Because of the cloud cover the self-timer might have been hard to time right. Clouds would sometimes block out the eclipse entirely. I had to wait for open gaps. I think the D100 does have mirror lock-up but I'd have to check. I've never needed to use it before. These aren't the kind of pictures I usually take.

Hot pixels: Looks like it. I took quite a few in fairly rapid succession while there was an opening in the clouds.