It’s adventure time! Boy, did I get a lucky break on this one. Literally, 10 more seconds and I wouldn’t have seen it!
ABOUT THE SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON
On January 31st of this year, we experienced a truly incredible event. The Super Blue Blood Moon. Thank goodness things worked out because the next one isn’t for another 19 years. I should be awesome at photography by then! I’m just so happy that we were able to see it because the last time a Super Blue Blood Moon occurred in North America was over 150 years ago.
What makes this event so special is that it’s made up of three rather unique occurrences. To start off this cosmic trifecta we have the Supermoon. This is when the moon looks larger than normal because it’s closer to the Earth than it usually is. Then we have the Blue Moon which is when we have two full moons in one month. Finally, there’s the Blood Moon, which to me was the most incredible part to see. This is when the moon looks red during the full eclipse because of the way the light from the Sun passes through the Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the moon. It’s kinda like seeing the colour of a beautiful sunset on the moon.
MY PHOTOS
Yeah, I know… The Blood Moon isn’t in focus gosh darn it! That’s because some thick clouds rolled in right when the full eclipse was about to happen. We waited a bit hoping that the clouds would break but no luck, so we packed up our camera gear, shook our fists at the clouds and then drove 15 minutes home. Right when I was about to walk in the front door and flop on the bed I looked over to my right and I could see the moon! It was such a beautiful rich red and holy smokes was it changing colours fast! The race was on! We hustled to an open spot where we had a clear view and I swear that was the fastest that tripod had ever been assembled. I threw the camera on, locked it in place, and fumbled my way through the settings to capture what you see above – a red, partially focussed moon. I did my best! But honestly about 10 seconds later, the red was gone. Talk about pressure!
PREPARATION
I did a lot of prep ahead of time to get these photos and put together a toolkit to make sure I didn’t forget anything at home. Here it is for the next moon photography adventure:
To help me scout a good spot ahead of time, I used the SkyView App on my phone. I really like it because you can select a celestial object and then track its trajectory. Like this:
I used SkyView to figure out where I wanted to be ahead of time because in addition to the telephoto shot, I also wanted to get a wide angle photo of the moon with some of Earth’s landscape in the foreground to show how big this moon really was.
It didn’t work out the way I thought it would because of the clouds rolling in but I think the final photo with the wide angle lens looks pretty nifty anyway.
To help me get this shot I used my Variable ND Filter and Intervalometer Remote to be able to set my shutter speed to 360 seconds:
TIPS ON HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH THE MOON
To get clear shots of the moon, remember to adjust these settings before heading out for the shoot to avoid fumbling in the dark.
- Turn Image Stabilization off (this will help take a sharper photo when the camera is on a sturdy tripod)
- Disable mirror lockup (this will help avoid camera shake during the shot)
- Start with the following exposure settings in manual mode: ISO 100 f11 1/125 sec
These were my settings when shooting the full moon prior to it turning red. Once it was red I had to adjust my settings to allow more light to be captured because the moon was quite a bit dimmer. Since I was fumbling at this point, I certainly chose the wrong settings. I had it on ISO 800 f5.6 2 sec. I’ll try a faster Shutter Speed next time because the moon moves incredibly fast, especially when using a 400mm telephoto lens like I was.
Time to plan the next shoot! Can’t wait for Milky Way season to arrive. Hoo hoo, I think I found a really great spot to capture it!