Photo of the Week: The Lunar Eclipse

A timelapse of a total lunar eclipse, seen from Brisbane in 2011.

Tomorrow marks one of the biggest days of the year for Cairns. It’s right in the centre of the small region in Far North Queensland that will get to see a complete solar eclipse…that is, if it’s not cloudy! Here in Brisbane we’ll be able to see about an 85% eclipse. I intend on going out early to try to get a glimpse of it, but since I don’t have any special glasses I might be reduced to only looking at it through pinholes in cardboard boxes!

In honour of eclipses in general, I thought I would post a photo from last year’s total lunar eclipse. A bunch of photographers all gathered on the waterfront at Shorncliffe to capture the event, but I was fairly certain we wouldn’t see anything at all, given the heavy rain and cloud cover we’d had all day. However, as soon as we set up our tripods, the clouds seemed to clear. They blocked our view on occasion — which accounts for some of the gaps in my image — but we had a perfect view as the moon began to glow blood red around midnight. It was an amazing sight, made even better by the good company I shared the experience with. I’m pretty impressed that some of them stayed out to see the eclipse in its entirety — I gave up around 1am and they still had another 2 hours to go!

To get this shot, I kept my tripod completely still and only moved the ballhead when the moon moved out of the frame. I snapped individual exposures a few minutes apart, although not always at very even intervals. Sometimes clouds were in the way and sometimes I was too busy looking at other people’s photos! I then layered the images in Photoshop to get the end result you see here.

Have you ever seen a total solar or lunar eclipse?

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
View all posts by Kristin →