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LUNAR ECLIPSE IN CANBERRA

Total Lunar Eclipse, pre-dawn hours Saturday July 28th

Joseph Cali

The eclipse
In the Eastern Australian time zone, the penumbral eclipse begins at 3:15, the partial eclipse begins at 4:24am Saturday morning. The total part of the eclipse (red Moon) starts at 5:30 am which is also the beginning of the darkest part of twilight called astronomical twilight. The red moon will fade into the brightening twilight over the next 93 minutes. On Saturday morning in Canberra, sunrise, moonset and the end of totality all coincidentally occur within about 10 minutes of each other between 7:02am and 7:13am. At sunrise, the still totally eclipsed Moon may not be visible though this is difficult to predict. I have seen one eclipse similar to this in 2011. It was a beautiful sight as the orange eclipsed Moon contrasted with the brightening blue sky.

The temperature is probably going to be around zero degrees. In the dark, your body radiates a lot more heat to the sky so dress much more warmly than you think you'll need.

This diagram shows the altitude and azimuth of the eclipse

Weather Forecasts
This week, weather prediction models have been very unstable, indicating their forecasts are unreliable. On Tuesday, the prediction was for clear weather . On Wednesday cloud models were predicting a complete cloud out, and Thursday, the prediction is for clear weather in the southern ACT and cloudy in the north. Friday night the forecast is again looking good.
Times for observing and photography

Eclipse Phase	Time (EST)	Comments
Penumbral	3:15am-4:24am	The penumbral phase is not obvious to the untrained eye. It just looks like a full Moon. Recommendation : stay in bed, get an extra hours sleep!
Partial	4:24am-5:30am	Will take place during the last hour of total darkness.
Totality (red/orange moon)	5:30am-7:00am	This begins at first light and lasts though 90 mins of twilight until the Sun rises and the Moon sets.

PARTIAL PHASES

Small Bite

Medium Bite

Big Bite

Smartphone, tablet cameras
Smartphones  are generally not as good as a  DSLR  for capturing low light scenes because the sensors run hotter and suffer more from noise problems.  
Here are some  hints:   

A lunar eclipse is a very slow event.  Shoot stills rather than video.
Video is inherently noisier and nothing is moving particularly fast. 
Try using the HDR function on your smart-phone camera.  
Support the phone. Don't hand-hold the phone. The exposures will probably be longer than you can hold your hand steady. If you have a phone bracket that you can put on a tripod, use it.   
If you don't have a tripod bracket, place a small towel on a level table, car boot or hood. Get a thin hardcover book. Hinge it open, spine at the top and stand it on the towel to make an inverted V.  Lean the phone or tablet on that.   Use selfie mode first to see where the camera is pointing then turn it around and use the forward camera. The forward camera in a phone or tablet usually has a better quality sensor.

Compact Camera 
Compact cameras have varying levels of control. If your compact camera only has auto control and/or compensation, follow the recommendations for cameras and tablets.  
If the camera has a manual mode follow the DSLR recommendations

DSLR  Cameras
A DSLR camera gives you a lot of flexibility in the settings but that also can be very confusing. The exposures recommended below are based on my exposures at previous eclipses. The surface brightness of the eclipsed Moon varies at every eclipse. Please consider the recommendations in the table as starting points. If the image is a bit dark, increase the exposure, if too bright, reduce it.
 
As twilight develops and the sky brightens, you can switch your camera to auto, perhaps use the auto bracketing function with the auto mode.

Event	ISO	Exposure Mode	Aperture Value	Shutter Speed
Full Moon	200	Manual	f 5.6	1/2000s
Partial phase small bite	200	Manual	f 5.6	1/1000s
Partial phase big bite	1600	Manual	f 5.6	1/30s - 1/2s
Totality around 5:40am	6400	Manual	f 5.6	1/2s
Totality around 6:10am	1600	Av	f 5.6	AUTO
Totality around 6:40am	200	Av	f 5.6	AUTO

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