AN ANATOMY OF A LUNAR ECLIPSE.....

One of the simple pleasures in life that I occasionally indulge in is stargazing. I remember when my cousins in Sta. Lucia used to own a pick up truck. I would come along with them whenever they plan to go to faraway places. Of course, the "unlucky" ones were the ones who sat at the back of the pick up truck. But for the teens like me, I enjoyed sitting at the back. What with the wind blowing across your face, your hair moving as carefree as possible and your clothes, flapping incessantly. Then as you looked up to the sky just around dusk, you see the stars illuminating the road ahead of you, guiding the pick up truck as it journeyed back to the house which we lovingly christened the "bodega". Magical! Isn't it?

These recollections of what I used to experience during my youth shaped my present preferences. It is awesome to see these celestial bodies right before our eyes. And to be able to capture it on film (or should I say the digital sensor) heightens the joy. The ultimate event to photograph has to be a solar eclipse. But because of the variables involved (for one thing, the eclipse has to be fully visible in the area I am at) in order to get a series of solar eclipse photographs, the next best thing shall be a lunar eclipse.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth's shadow obstructs the light coming from the sun that shines on the moon. A lunar eclipse happened last June 16 and I decided to photograph the phenomenon even if it meant being awake until the wee hours of dawn. The result is the photo on this page.

Now to the technical stuff. Prior to setting up my camera on top of my tripod, I watched the local news to figure out the time the eclipse would begin. Once I got the information, I then set my camera using the longest telephoto lens that I have, a 70-300mm zoom lens set at the 300 mm distance. ISO was at 400 and on manual mode. I then slept and awoke just as the eclipse started.

It was 2:29 am when I went out and started shooting. The first, second and third pictures were my establishing shots. For the first frame I chose an aperture of f/5.6 and 1/40 shutter speed. The result showed the beginnings of the eclipse and the moon's outline but it totally overexposed the majority of the moon's surface. I decreased the shutter speed for the next shot to 1/60 and it showed a slight improvement. I further decreased the shutter speed for the third shot at 1/100 and this yielded a much better result. The moon's surface can now be seen but the obstructed part is now completely black. The fourth and fifth frame had a different exposure value altogether. Aperture was set at f/11 to increase the zone of sharpness on the moon's surface and shutter speed at 1/500. At this point, I was concerned with which part of the moon shall I be putting more emphasis on when it came to exposure, whether it was the obstructed part or the unobstructed area. I didn't want to end up taking a picture of a totally blacked out moon so I adjusted the exposure once again and went back to an aperture of 5.6 and a shutter speed of 0.5 for the sixth frame. The photo shows the moon's surface while it is obstructed and the overexposed part is the remaining clear area. The seventh photo, I adjusted the shutter speed to 1/4. The final picture shows a totally eclipsed moon, aperture at f/5.6 and shutter speed of 3.2 seconds and taken at 3:58 am. Scientists say that the reddish hue can be attributed to the smog and pollution present on the earth's atmosphere.

I wasn't able to take pictures of the reverse process as it became cloudy. I did not mind though, as I was so drowsy by this time and went inside the house with my camera, satisfied with what I shot. Next time, I'd give emphasis to the unobstructed side and have a blocked out moon.