Moon Eclipse on Winter Solstice

I heard the news and got all excited and started making plans for a night of creativity. Well it turned out CLEAR, very important to have a clear sky. Unfortunately when the sky is clear is is always cold and it was very cold. I was concerned for batteries, lenses and tripods. My plan was to set up a time-lapse with my canon 60d. I used a photo tripod and my 70-300. I had a problem with movement of the moon would pass through the view of the camera more than once. I had to wait until the moon was almost out of the frame them move it to the other side of the frame at least 5 times. I set the lens to manual focus so it would never change. The other challenge I had was exposure, As the moon changes through the eclipse. Every so often I had to get out in the cold and change shutter speed so I could see the red part of the moon in the dark or not blow out the moon at the bright times. the intervolometer worked well taking a shot every 10 seconds.

The next issue I had was in post. I set it up in Photoshop opening the first image and check box set to open folder as a movie. Then I had to export as a movie at the correct settings and wait until it finished rendering.

Next in Premiere pro CS5 I imported the clip and used the tracking feature to keep the moon stationary in the frame. It was a bunch of work and the end product is very short. Have a look!

Winter Solstice Moon Eclipse

Then I took some of the best shots and made this image in Photoshop.

I also took my Pentax K-7 and attatched my 2000mm telescope with a simple adapter. I had to shoot with mirror up and use a remote shutter to reduce camera shake. I could not overcome the movement of the moon

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