It came at the perfect time. Not at some ungodly hour like 3 or 4 in the morning like celestial events usually occur. But it started around 8.30 and finished before 11.00pm. I talk of a total lunar eclipse culminating with a Blood Moon. It was a beautifully clear night after a week of overcast skies, or humid as it been as well. It was quite a crisp  evening, so we could not ask for anything better. I initially took the eclipse shots hand held. Now you maybe asking how I got good shots with a hand held camera. It’s easier that you think.

*Side Note here. If you own a DSLR camera or a camera with good manual settings you can take shots like you see here above . Here’s the secret. Just remember to 100 100 rule. Set you camera to full manual mode then set your shutter speed to 1/100 sec – Your ISO to 100 – and start your fstop at f8 and tinker with the aperture as needed. Now you may be thinking that 1/100sec is way too quick, but the moon is so bright as it reflects the sun back down to earth. You may even find that 1/100 is too slow and you are getting blurriness from your moon photos. If so go up to 1/200sec. But make sure your ISO is set to 200 too. You can keep increasing your shutter speed. just make sure your ISO matches. If you want some more details see what NASA has to say about it.

https://science.nasa.gov/moon/photography-guide/#camera

Once the Blood Moon started all my settings changed. Otherwise all we would see is the blackness of Space. So I had to get out the tripod and I started taking my shots at 0.8 to 1.0 seconds. The fstop was put at the lowest I could – f5.6. I had the ISO set to 800. and the alternated between 0.8 and 1.0 seconds. I then experimented the settings getting different results as I went along.

Also. It was an amazingly clear night so I just had to get a photo of my favourite constellation – Orion, which includes Betelguise (Beetle – Juice), one of my favourite stars.

So I have put together a YouTube clip showing the progress of the Lunar eclipse and a few photos of the differing shades of Blood Moon and of course, Orion. Enjoy!