Eclipsed by the GX10

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Doug Jewell - 29 Aug 2007 11:40 GMT

Here's a few shots of last night's eclipse, in the cliched multi-exposure
format as alluded to by markt.
These shots were as the moon was coming out of the eclipse - it was the
first time I've used the multiple exposure feature on the GX10, and I
stuffed up while it was going into eclipse. I discovered that if some
buttons are pressed (including the FN button), it cancels the
multi-exposure. By the time it was going out of the eclipse I'd worked out
how to use the function. By the time next eclipse comes around I should have
it down pat - including the time between frames. Looks like about 2 min 30
is the best. 2 minutes is just a little too close together.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1266022520/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1265173881/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1265152849/
Technical:
Samsung GX10 with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 lens at 300mm.
Exposure: I changed exposure during the sequence. Starting with
2sec@F5.6@ISO200 while the moon was completely eclipsed, through to
1/60@F9@ISO100 when it was mostly out of the eclipse.

Things I learnt...
1) Keep your concentration - I was using a program for my palm to do the
timing, but at one stage I got sidetracked looking through the telescope,
and missed one of the timings - hence the larger gap in one of the photos.
I'm designing a circuit for an automated timer - it would have been handy
last night.
2) Get to know your equipment - I stuffed up my first attempts by pressing
the wrong buttons on the camera.
3) I need to get a quality tripod - the tripod I have is cheap crap. It's
sturdy enough, but trying to move the camera to line up the shot I wanted
was a pain in the bum. The flex in the tripod led to much cussing.
4) Excited small children, cheap tripods, big cameras and lenses, and
nighttime don't mix.
5) Digital cameras should have "night mode" for their displays, that make
them display the menus in dull shades of red. Framing a shot, after you've
just been looking at a bright colourful screen is rather difficult.
6) the GX10 has amazing autofocus - it was able to lock onto the moon when
it was fully eclipsed, with a 300/5.6 lens.

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Troy Piggins - 29 Aug 2007 11:57 GMT

* Doug Jewell is quoted & my replies are inline below :

> Here's a few shots of last night's eclipse, in the cliched multi-exposure
> format as alluded to by markt.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1265173881/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1265152849/

Great series. One of the best of the many I've seen in the last
24hrs.

> Technical:
> Samsung GX10 with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 lens at 300mm.
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> 6) the GX10 has amazing autofocus - it was able to lock onto the moon when
> it was fully eclipsed, with a 300/5.6 lens.

All the above is great advice. I'm saving your post for 2010 or
whenever the next one is! Thanks!

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Troy Piggins

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Doug Jewell - 30 Aug 2007 14:21 GMT

>* Doug Jewell is quoted & my replies are inline below :
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1266022520/
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Great series. One of the best of the many I've seen in the last
> 24hrs.

Thanks for your kind words :)

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mark.thomas.7@gmail.com - 30 Aug 2007 11:15 GMT

Doug - bravo - excellent work!!

> Here's a few shots of last night's eclipse, in the cliched multi-exposure
> format as alluded to by markt.

Well, I did add that I was really just jealous of those with the
patience

> These shots were as the moon was coming out of the eclipse - it was the
> first time I've used the multiple exposure feature on the GX10, and I
> stuffed up while it was going into eclipse.

It's good that the lunar ones progress slowly - I can remember being
glad I decided to just watch the action during the last solar eclipse
I went to.. I heard a nearby person with a big camera setup cursing
under his breath as he made some (presumably fatal) error around the
'bailey's beads' / 'diamond ring / totality moments... (O;

If those efforts are including errors, if you ever get it 'right' they
will have competition up Coonabarabran way...

> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1266022520/

That is just excellent. Was the small overlap, neatly positioned in
the shadow area, deliberate? - I will assume so, and say that has
resulted in the best series of a lunar eclipse I have seen.

> Things I learnt...
> 1) Keep your concentration - I was using a program for my palm to do the
> timing, but at one stage I got sidetracked looking through the telescope,
> and missed one of the timings - hence the larger gap in one of the photos.
> I'm designing a circuit for an automated timer - it would have been handy
> last night.

It's hard to do that when you are a big kid like me, and want to just
take in the moment..

> 2) Get to know your equipment - I stuffed up my first attempts by pressing
> the wrong buttons on the camera.

The wisdom of a sage.. The time to learn about how your camera
handles solar or lunar photography is not when the first eclipse comes
your way.. But everyone does it..!

> 3) I need to get a quality tripod - the tripod I have is cheap crap.

Yes, a sturdy tripod with either a wireless remote or short self-timer
delay (may be hard to add into interval driven shooting..) is
essential for night time work.

> 4) Excited small children, cheap tripods, big cameras and lenses, and
> nighttime don't mix.

Hahah! Isn't that what significant others are for - ie crowd control?

> 5) Digital cameras should have "night mode" for their displays, that make
> them display the menus in dull shades of red. Framing a shot, after you've
> just been looking at a bright colourful screen is rather difficult.

This is something I too cannot fathom. My extra cheap bottom end car-
nav-gps thingy has a superb, softly lit LCD that automatically
switches into night-time mode (at true sundown, no less!). Yet my
much more expensive digital cameras - supposedly designed by people
who know about optics and the eye - haven't even got the option, and
the lowest brightness settings are still way too high for this sort of
work. Why bother giving a flaming 8 minute shutter speed if you can't
easily use other aspects of the camera in those conditions? (end rant)

> 6) the GX10 has amazing autofocus - it was able to lock onto the moon when
> it was fully eclipsed, with a 300/5.6 lens.

Mine had a lot of trouble, but by then the high cloud had moved in, so
there was nothing even vaguely sharp to find.. )O;

Anyway, thanks for posting those great shots and the valuable info.

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Doug Jewell - 30 Aug 2007 14:20 GMT

> Doug - bravo - excellent work!!

Thanks :-)

>> Here's a few shots of last night's eclipse, in the cliched multi-exposure
>> format as alluded to by markt.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> under his breath as he made some (presumably fatal) error around the
> 'bailey's beads' / 'diamond ring / totality moments... (O;

Never been lucky enough to witness a total solar eclipse. The two that I can
think of in reasonably recent times have been obscured by heavy cloud cover.

> If those efforts are including errors, if you ever get it 'right' they
> will have competition up Coonabarabran way...

Not for a while yet.

>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdaj/1266022520/
> That is just excellent. Was the small overlap, neatly positioned in
> the shadow area, deliberate? - I will assume so, and say that has
> resulted in the best series of a lunar eclipse I have seen.

*Cough*. Of course that was deliberate. A master of photography such as
myself never does things by chance. *cough*.
When I decided to do the multi-exposure thingy, I had no idea what sort of
timeframe to use between exposures. A couple of my failed attempts while it
was going into the eclipse were the ones that helped me settle on timing.
30sec was way too close, 1 minute still had too much overlap. As it was
coming out I tried 2 minutes, another at 3 minutes (too much), and another
at 2-1/2. I initially thought 2 minutes was insufficient time, but the more
I look at that photo the more I agree with you that it was pretty much
exactly the right amount.

>> Things I learnt...
>> 1) Keep your concentration - I was using a program for my palm to do the
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> It's hard to do that when you are a big kid like me, and want to just
> take in the moment..

Yeah, it's sometimes hard to strike the balance between looking through a
camera, and just looking.

>> 2) Get to know your equipment - I stuffed up my first attempts by
>> pressing
>> the wrong buttons on the camera.
> The wisdom of a sage.. The time to learn about how your camera
> handles solar or lunar photography is not when the first eclipse comes
> your way.. But everyone does it..!

I didn't even look up lunar eclipse photography on the net until after I did
it - seems I did it pretty right. A few years ago there was an eclipse that
I took a couple of photos of. At the time I only had a film camera and my
longest lens was 200mm. This turned out to be pretty much a waste of time -
the exposures were all wrong, the moon was tiny with no detail, and the
photos of a bright blob on a jet black background were dull. This time I
figured that with digital I could get instant feedback on exposure (and
started out with the sunny 16 rule, since the moon is lit by the sun), with
a 300mm lens (450 equiv) the moon would be a decent size, and decided that
multiple exposures showing it's progress would remove some of the dullness.

>> 3) I need to get a quality tripod - the tripod I have is cheap crap.
> Yes, a sturdy tripod with either a wireless remote or short self-timer
> delay (may be hard to add into interval driven shooting..) is
> essential for night time work.

I used an electronic remote release. Possibly I should have also used 2sec
timer. I also only noticed _after_ it was all over that I had the camera set
to anti-shake, which is not recommended when on a tripod.

>> 4) Excited small children, cheap tripods, big cameras and lenses, and
>> nighttime don't mix.
> Hahah! Isn't that what significant others are for - ie crowd control?

You can have the job of telling her that. I warn you now, it won't be
pretty - think Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan...

>> 5) Digital cameras should have "night mode" for their displays, that make
>> them display the menus in dull shades of red. Framing a shot, after
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> work. Why bother giving a flaming 8 minute shutter speed if you can't
> easily use other aspects of the camera in those conditions? (end rant)

Just thinking more about it, I reckon a piece of red cellophane should help.
Back when I was keenly into astronomy I used to use red cellophane over my
torch, so it should help with the camera too. Must try that some time.

>> 6) the GX10 has amazing autofocus - it was able to lock onto the moon
>> when
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Anyway, thanks for posting those great shots and the valuable info.

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