I do know the realm effectively, as I’ve shot there many instances (together with with two Nationwide Parks at Evening workshops). However PhotoPills scouting was nonetheless essential as a result of I wanted to know the place the moon could be throughout totality. Which of my favourite landscapes could be good for a moon picture at that specific time and date? I settled on Value Lake, as I may see that in totality the moon could be drifting over the tree line on the southeastern shore (Determine 1).
Alas, all good plans want a backup, particularly when touring with a child. Maggie was bored ready for the eclipse. We tried trying to find frogs, then trying to find spiders, then recognizing fireflies. We watched the water flowing over the dam and listened for noises within the woods and guessed what made them. However this stuff didn’t maintain her curiosity lengthy sufficient. So, as an alternative, we meandered up the parkway till the moon lastly began to cover in Earth’s shadow, after which pulled into an overlook.
We arrange her telescope, she promptly situated the moon within the eyepiece, and the expertise shortly grew to become fairly freakin’ cool. She was enthralled—sufficient in order that I knew I had time for a photograph.
However from the overlook, I had no foreground price taking pictures. By necessity, this could be a moon portrait, not a moonscape. I unpacked the longest lens I personal, a Nikon 300mm f/2.8—a lens not fairly lengthy sufficient to fill the body with the moon, however lengthy sufficient so the moon could be greater than only a pink dot within the sky.
The Publicity
The difficulty with telephoto lenses at night time is that except you’re utilizing a hefty tracker, taking pictures star factors is sort of unattainable with one publicity. With a 300mm lens, a fast examine of the Spot Stars calculator in PhotoPills revealed that I may use a shutter velocity of only one/2 to 1 second earlier than my stars would start to path (Determine 2). That may require an ISO of 51,200, and that may produce far more noise than could be acceptable.
