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Blood Moon May 15, 2022
The moon has always been an object of fascination, but I wouldn't go
so far as to worship it. I do, however, praise God, whose idea it was.
With the appearance of the blood moons in my lifetime, I became
aware of their prophetic significance, and I wanted to be sure not
to miss the rare opportunity to photograph one.
2022 was pretty much a repeat of what I experienced trying to
photograph the bloodmoon in 2014. I had all the same issues with
the tripod being unable to keep the supertelephoto lens in place.
Also. the intensity of the light is shifting every moment. I tried the
auto ISO in my new D500, but it didn't work for this situation.
I wound up getting some disappointing results utilizing those
super-high ISO's. By the time the moon had turned red, there
was so little light eminating that I constantly lost it in the lens.
I turned off the auto ISO and brought the range down some,
but not enough. I compensated with very long exposures.
Here's what I wrote in 2014 about the Sigma lens:
This lens has great reach, but weighs so much that even a heavy–duty
Manfrotto tripod can't hold it in position when aimed straight up toward
the heavens. The doubler defeats the camera's Autofocus, so I needed
the camera stabilized to be able to manually focus. It was kind of a
nightmare because I was losing the progression of the lunar eclipse.
Another problem was that at this degree of magnification, it was
hard to hone in on the subject, and when I finally did, the tripod would
not lock it into place. The moon would leave the frame as the lens
sagged downward. I had this problem recently when Jupiter and Saturn
were both visible. I used the tripod but had the same issues. I couldn't
seem to get the tripod configured so I could gaze upward either.
I also took some handheld shots with the D300s and a 300mm lens.
In some respects, these are better, a little sharper I think, but lacking
the scale of the 500mm x2 lens.
Nikon D300s, handheld, 300mm
22 photos
Nikon D500, tripod, 500mm with doubler
22 photos
Blood Moon November 8, 2022
Well, I found this as frustrating as ever. I used the D500, thinking
the Auto ISO would take care of the gradual changes in the moon's brightness. But when I went out at 5am, the sky was cloudy, the moon
was small and dim, and I could hardly find it. There were clouds covering
it for long periods of time. I couldn't get the new tripod to hold the lens in place. That was a major disappointment. I didn't bother with the doubler because I wanted to try using AutoFocus, which I can't use with the
doubler. The shots using AutoFocus weren't quite in focus, so I ended
up using Manual focus anyway. It started to rain before I got one really
showing the red. There won't be an another blood moon until 2034, so
this very well be my last attempt to get this right. I'll be 84 years old
then, so it is possible I'll be still alive. Today is Election Day for the mid-terms, so it's an important day.
