First phase of last night's eclipse

[Chris Summers]

My new Canon RF 800mm f/11 lens arrived yesterday so I figured I would attempt to record the eclipse. I mounted it on my Canon R7 which made it the equivalent of a 1280mm lens. I used my large Induro tripod with a gimbal head and took a few shots of the full moon which was directly above at 10pm before heading off to bed. I set an alarm for 3am, not really necessary as I always seem to make a trip to the bathroom about that time.

I went outside and the eclipse had just started here in the Central time zone so the top edge of the moon was starting to be shaded. I took a dozen or so pictures, most were at 1/80th of a second and ISO 100, f/11 of course. I decided not to switch off the image stabilization as there was still a bit of shake even on the tripod.

Went back to bed and woke again at 4:30. I went back out and had a devil of a time just finding the completely darkened moon, it had dropped in the west more than I had guessed and it was a dark orangish red. I had a hard time finding it moving the camera around but finally did but it was just too dim to hold focus on. Some light early morning haze had appeared so it just wasn't standing out in the sky like before.

Gave up and went back to bed. Anyway, here is the shot at 10 and the next at 3 o'clock.

 

[Hali]

Nice shots! I totally missed the eclipse. Were you happy with the 800?

 

[Chris Summers]

Only had it a few days and most of my test shots were what I could find, like ducks on a pond, etc. I plan to go down to Galveston Island next week and find some shore birds or arriving waterfowl... maybe some sailboats or other stuff off in the distance. I am impressed with how light it is! This really helps with the balance when on a camera without a battery grip like the R7. I got a JCC brand lens hood for $18 on Amazon, a knock off of the Canon one and it's made well and a lot cheaper. I also decided to order the tripod mount foot that IShoot sells. It's a bit harder to attach to a tripod when the plate is right on the underside of the lens. The foot extends it a bit and also gives you a grip when you are walking around looking for subjects