today's video is sponsored by squarespace blood moon is just an evocative name for a total lunar
eclipse which occurs when the earth lines up perfectly in between the sun and the moon so
the moon is completely covered in the earth's shadow it's getting no direct
sunlight the reason that the full moon turns this shade of red orange reminiscent of blood
is because there's still some light from the earth's atmosphere still reaching the moon's
surface and the earth's atmosphere refracts blue light really strongly which leaves
this very reddish orange light that's still hitting the moon and something that's really
exciting actually about total lunar eclipses is each one will have a slightly different
color due to the different amounts of water vapor and particulate matter in the earth's atmosphere
that particular night a blood moon is a really fun astronomical event to witness first hand and the
next one will take place here in 2022 on sunday may 15th into the morning of monday may 16th
and the east coast of the u.s where i'm located will be very well positioned for it as long as
we don't get clouded out if you happen to be watching this video later like in 2023 or 2024
these five tips i'll share can work for photographing any total lunar eclipse
so tip number one is to find out if you're in the right location to see the eclipse and then find
out the key times for when the eclipse starts and ends including the different phases of the eclipse
my favorite resource for finding these times is timeanddate.com that website always seems
to have good visualizations graphics and tables that should tell you the times for your location
automatically if you allow your web browser to locate you so i can see here for my location in
boston the penumbral phase starts at 9 30 pm on sunday local time i don't really care about the
penumbral phase because that just looks like a slight dimming of the moon but i want to be ready
for the start of the partial phase which starts around 10 30 and then of course the full totality
which actually uh when the moon actually turns red which starts at 11 30 pm and goes for an
hour and a half to 12 53 monday morning so tip number two is to check weather forecasts and have
a vehicle and be prepared to move your location to try to find clear skies for the last total
solar eclipse in the us in 2017 i had backups for my backups and i'm very glad i did because
i got to see it but my original couple picks were completely clouded out so it's the same thing with
a lunar eclipse if you have partial clouds you may get a really cool picture like i did with my
solar eclipse photo here but you don't want to just get overcast because then you're not going
to see anything that's a cloud out so i recommend checking weather.gov check clearoutside.com check
the astrospheric app and astrospheric.com and see if you can find a location near you
where all these kinds of different forecasts agree that you're going to have clear skies
before i share the last three tips let me tell you a little bit about today's sponsor
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just chose one i thought looked good dropped in my photos into different uh categories that i got to
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purchase with the code nebula photos all right tip number three is to pick out what gear you'll use
and practice with it before the eclipse you can shoot the lunar eclipse with a wide angle lens
you can shoot it close up with or without tracking you can get very cool shots with almost any setup
but the important thing is that you're comfortable with the gear you'll be using especially if you
don't normally shoot a lot of lunar photography because it's good to remember these steps that you
have are going to have to take to make sure you have everything ready that you're you're going to
need and make sure you understand how it all works remember that you can still focus on a bright star
with a bodenav mask if that's how you're used to focusing and it's clear you can also focus on the
craters of the moon itself but i'd practice that first if you're not used to focusing on the moon
sometimes even autofocus will work on the moon if you're using a lens and camera that has that
but i always double check your focus with practice shots before just thinking you
have the right focus in terms of the gear i'm planning on personally i think i'm going to go
pretty lightweight with my setup with this new 800 millimeter rf f11 lens that i picked up recently
pairs with my canon ra mirrorless camera and i'm going to put these on my star adventurer
2i tracker which i can set to lunar tracking mode i may do a second setup too but i haven't really
decided if i want to go wide angle or telescope but anyways practicing with the gear ahead of
time leads me into tip number four which is to go in with a plan for what you want to accomplish and
then use your practice time to practice that plan and a plan can be as simple as take one
good in focus shot of the blood moon and then just enjoy the rest of the night or it can be something
more complex like take a perfect time lapse showing all the phases of the eclipse that would
require a lot more planning since the different phases will require different camera settings
as the moon's going to be a lot brighter in the partial phase than it will be during totality if
this is your first total lunar eclipse i'd suggest keeping it fairly simple and just find some good
settings for your camera and optics where the moon looks well exposed and then make sure
you focus and take lots of photos during totality and that way you have the option of stacking them
for a sharper result during the last total lunar eclipse i took 40 photos with a telescope at f 5.6
iso 800 and one second long exposures and that let me get both the eclipsed moon and the background
star field to look pretty good now please take these settings at 5.6 iso 800 in one second
as just a very rough starting place because every total lunar eclipse is different some are brighter
some are darker and so you're going to have to adjust the shutter speed yourself on the night of
of the actual eclipse to find the right exposure value this isn't something you can really practice
too much ahead of time if it's a very dark eclipse you may be doing 10 second or even 20 second long
exposures if it's a very bright eclipse it might be under a second and of course i'd
always recommend shooting raw because then even if you're a bit over underexposed you can sort of
make up for that in the camera raw converter tip number five is to bring binoculars or a telescope
and get your friends and family to come out and take a look because this is something really cool
to directly view to see the stars and the moon in the same field of view i just can't
really explain why that's so cool but it's much better seeing it live than in a photo
and that's sort of how i feel about all eclipses the photos are nice but they don't compare
to seeing it live through binoculars or just with your own eyes well that's it for this one
i might do a follow-up uh you know about processing your blood moon
photography and if you have any of your own tips for shooting a total lunar eclipse please feel
free to leave them in the comment section till next time this has been nico carver clear skies