Here's a few amusing photos I took of the lunar eclipse from my back garden last night - as predicted, it was the best ever. The sky was so clear and black we didn't even need to get out of the city, or even go to the park - so we hung out in the garden, smoked and drank hot tea and gasped. Once totality sets in,the moon is a very different beast - much more 3-dimensional.
My friend brought round a 38X birdwatching telescope, which is perfect for the moon - it fills the viewfinder. Through that, it was astounding - like a big transluscent wax sphere with an orange light inside it. The surface features are way easier to see without the usual glare of the sun, with meteor 'splats' and many more smaller craters clearly visible.
I had to at least attempt to take some pics - the scope didn't have a camera attachment, so I had to jam the lens of the tiny Nikon compact digital against the viewfinder of the scope and try different zoom settings, and hope the autofocus could cope - this are the best ones. It was naturally very hit and miss, and with an average exposure time of 3-4 seconds, hardly 'astronomical' quality! They go from just over halfway coverage to the moment of totality - after that it was just too dim to take a photo.
Also the half-blotter of Hoffman acid I took didn't help. Or did it? You decide...
My friend brought round a 38X birdwatching telescope, which is perfect for the moon - it fills the viewfinder. Through that, it was astounding - like a big transluscent wax sphere with an orange light inside it. The surface features are way easier to see without the usual glare of the sun, with meteor 'splats' and many more smaller craters clearly visible.
I had to at least attempt to take some pics - the scope didn't have a camera attachment, so I had to jam the lens of the tiny Nikon compact digital against the viewfinder of the scope and try different zoom settings, and hope the autofocus could cope - this are the best ones. It was naturally very hit and miss, and with an average exposure time of 3-4 seconds, hardly 'astronomical' quality! They go from just over halfway coverage to the moment of totality - after that it was just too dim to take a photo.
Also the half-blotter of Hoffman acid I took didn't help. Or did it? You decide...
. It looked amazing, it had a brownish hue. Looked a lot better in real life than in the pictures.
