My Exmouth eclipse expedition could be a case study on the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ or proof that even blind persistence can pay off. Either way, it is a saga.

The key ingredients for these images were:

  • Sky-Watcher Esprit 150, Sony a1 (1575mm focal length, image scale 0.6 arc seconds/pixel)
  • Sky-Watcher EvoStar 150, Sony a1 (1200mm)
  • Sky-Watcher EvoStar 150, Sony A7 IV (930mm)
  • Sky-Watcher Esprit 100, Sony A7 IV (550mm)

Yes, that’s one 4" and three 6” refractors plus two 8K Sony cameras out of a total of nine, delivering super high resolution and a lot of data! Read on to find out more..

I hope you enjoy this video 'The Moon in Motion', with footage of the 'Great American Eclipse', captured from locations in Idaho and looking over the Tetons on 21st August 2017. Music by my talented friend, cellist and composer Kristin Rule: http://www.kristinrule.com/

Best viewed with the lights down and the music up on the biggest screen you have. 

It has taken me all of the nearly two years since this international expedition to develop and apply the specialised eclipse image processing and video editing techniques required to create this. The video features footage from 7 out of 12 cameras I had running on the day. Read on to find out more..

The view from Table Mountain of the Great American Eclipse; 21st August 2017, looking towards the Grand Teton and the Teton Range. Three days prior to the eclipse I hiked up to the summit of Table Mountain (3,387m/11,100ft) and planted an automated camera. A day after the eclipse I hiked up to the summit again to retrieve my camera, only to find out that the whole exercise had so nearly been in vain.

Shooting Stars eBook

How to Photograph the Moon and Stars with your DSLR


Ever wished you could capture stunning images of the night sky? Thought you needed complicated and expensive equipment?

Shooting Stars, written by David Malin Astrophotography Award winner Phil Hart, will show you how to shoot your own stunning images of the moon and the stars with just your digital SLR and a tripod. It will teach you about five key styles of night sky photography and the camera settings required for each:

  • Twilight landscapes
  • Night sky scenes (short exposures)
  • Star trails (long exposures)
  • The Moon
  • Night sky timelapse videos

The updated 2021 edition includes an entire new section on 'Tracking the Stars', an introduction to long-exposure astrophotography, and image processing, with portable equatorial tracking mounts.

If you've ever wanted to photograph the night sky, I'm very confident this eBook will help you a lot!

I booked myself in for foot surgery six weeks before this lunar eclipse, signing up only after confirming with the surgeon that I would be 'good to go' for an astrophotography expedition - a road trip across Victoria or into neighbouring states to find clear skies.

Third time lucky, yet still not without significant natural and man-made challenges. Our adventure in via Snowy Plains Firetrail for a week of snow camping at Cesjacks and O'Keefe's Hut and ski touring back in the Jagungal Wilderness.

3% ain't much of a solar eclipse, but when it's all you've got and it happens at sunset, it's still worth a shot or three. And a couple of days away and several night's rehearsing.

 

With lockdown #5 complete, I finally got to start some winter leave and headed straight for Mount Beauty, via Bendigo for the now mandatory pre-resort entry COVID test. I got in three days skating at Falls Creek, before Tim and Eric joined me for a much anticipated ski tour. 

Wednesday 26th May 2021 would be the first lunar eclipse in three years, although it was only barely total, with the Moon completely inside Earth's shadow for just 14 minutes or so. But as usual, I would bite off more than I could likely chew.

Composite image with Moon correctly positioned relative to Earth's shadow

21
Jun

Southern Cross and 'The Pointers'

Although I already have an automated observatory for deep sky imaging, with some time and inspiration in isolation in early 2020, I setup my smaller equatorial mount in my 'darky sky' backyard for some widefield imaging with a QHY367C CMOS camera and a Canon 85mm lens, to capture this stunninng view of this region of sky, inspired as I have been for the last 25+ years by Akira Fujii's own famous image of this iconic constellation. In total, I captured 20 hours of exposure across three panes of the mosaic, including additional frames to capture the red nebula through a hydrogen-alpha filter and multiple layers of blurred stars through soft effect filters.

Southern Cross and 'The Pointers', captured by Phil Hart in April/May 2020
QHY367C camera and Canon 85mm lens at f5.6, 20 hours total exposure

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