Lunar Eclipse Tonight

[Andy Stringer]

@HDNitehawk

Based on my shots of a full moon (at 300mm + 1.4x on a 1.3x crop camera), I would try the 7D with the 500 + 1.4x on a sturdy tripod. Your 5D II will be too wide without the 2x extender.

Shoot wide open at f/5.6. You don't need depth of field for the moon, but you do need all the light you can get to avoid the nasty ISO noise that you'll suffer if you close the aperture too much, especially since the moon may not be its usual bright white, and only partly visible. Use ISO 100 if you can, but it's hard to advise how much light there will be since I've never seen this event. Use spot metering and exposure bracketing. Keep checking the histogram and compensate as required.


@mpphoto12

Same general advice, but you'll have to crop really tight to get anything, unless you get lucky with some dramatic clouds in a (relatively) wide shot at 200mm. ISO 50 is a possibility, since you could be shooting at f/2.8

I hope the sky stays clear for you and look forward to seeing any shots you get. I'm unlikely to see it through the fog here in Britain, and we only get to see a partial eclipe just before sunrise anyway. Looks like were all counting on you two tonight. No pressure.