Sep 27 2015
I decided I would stay up and try to see the moon eclipse. Earlier predictions said it would be clear skies here in MW Ohio. This afternoon clouds came in and it didn’t look like I would be able to see it. At the start of dusk the skies started to clear.
I was not sure where the moon would rise but started watching after 7 PM. I missed the early rise of it because of clouds on the horizon; but a little after 8 PM it was visible almost due east of me. I sat up my camera, Oly E620 with standard 14-70 mm lens, on a tripod. At 70 mm I could get a good picture.
It did not appear as large as I thought it would but it was sure bright; a white and not the red they were showing it would look. When I first saw it, it was 10deg. above the horizon. I played around with some settings and settled on aperture at 5.6 for 3.2 seconds was giving me the best photos. I am a little rusty at using manual settings on my camera. I got better pictures of a prior eclipse with a Canon point and shoot camera with large zoom.
When I had my camera all setup I sat on my smoking deck relaxing with a beer and went out and shot a few frames every 20 minutes. As the moon rose it kept getting further away, or so it appeared, so I switched to my 70-300 mm lens which is the equivalent of 140–600 mm for the last two photos. I didn’t stay up for the full eclipse and could have missed some good shots.
After looking at all the frames I took I chose 7 to show. What I am wondering was did I capture a planet beyond the moon or was it just light tricks or reflections? I can see it in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th and maybe the 6th photos. It appears to be a kind of blue planet to me below right of the moon. In the 4th photo it is upper left and in the 6th it might be to the right. Anyone care to comment please do!
I was looking east to see the moon but not sure if I was looking toward the sun or away. If I did capture a planet it would be Venus or Mars. I know Venus at times looks like a star but not sure about Mars.
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Smokin Don