Blood Moon over Walker Lake

Chasing the Lunar Eclipse, April 14-15, 2014

The lunar eclipse on April 14-15, 2014 had me anxiously preparing for photos by charging batteries and testing the electric shutter release.   I was crossing all fingers and toes that the weather would cooperate.   Knowing it might be a long night, I decided to try for a few hours of sleep and catch the moon as it entered umbra just before 11pm (22:00pdt). 

Fortunately the weather was kind with clear skies, calm wind and temps just cool enough for a light jacket. 

As an experiment, I began the photo shoot using my Nikon 80-200mm 2.8 lens just to compare the images against the Nikon 500mm 4.0.  The 500mm lens is long and bulky where as the 80-200mm is a faster lens and not as susceptible to camera shake when shooting in the wind.    Setting my ISO to 400, I metered the exposure for 1/125 second at f/5.6.  I then began to bracket the exposures from 1/200 up to 1/800 seconds while checking on my camera's sensor, looking for detail and sharpness in the moon. 

As the moon began to become immersed in shadow and eclipse to 75%, I switched lenses to the 500mm which allowed me to focus on more of the moon and not so much of the dark sky.  The aperture was set to f/5.6 and the shutter speed adjusted for a 1/200 second exposure.

Several minutes before totality, around 00:19 the remaining moon's disk was turning a red-brown color. The shutter speed was again adjusted to 1/60 sec.

As the moon entered in to totality, my shutter speed dropped from 1/40 to 1/20 and then to 1/10 second.  When my shutter speed dropped below 1/40, I opened the aperture to f/4.0.

As the moon moved to the north of the center of Earth’s umbra, the gradation of color and brightness across the lunar disk appeared with hues of deep copper or chocolate brown in the lower darkest portion.  The upper portion was brighter with red and orange hues. 

Thus the connotation Blood Moon is derived from the red hue that is reflected on the moon in relation to the Earth.  The sky at Walker Lake was mostly clear during this eclipse, however pollution, dust, clouds, smoke will cause the moon to appear in different colors. 

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What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been.  I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences. 

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Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

 "Reflecting Nature's Artistry" 

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