So you know tonight was a lunar eclipse... an adventure. so grab some
fingerfood and relax.
I'm sending this to different folks, so if things sound too techy or
locations aren't familiar, worry not and just ignore it :) ask questions
(just hit "reply", not "reply all") if i totally lost you :)
The afternoon of the event, called up the chair of the physics dept, who
immediately recognized me, and said i could check out the tele, no problem.
good. even saw something that looked like a critical adapter that couples a
camera to the telescope, one that I had bought long ago, and thought lost,
figuring I must have put it in the bag with all the other couplings when
returning the equipment (having checked it out a few times before)
now, i needed film (didn't want to get it if i wasn't gonna have the scope
since NPH (what i planned to use) is so pricey locally, about 8 $ and
change all said--more on that later). called home, bro had school till
6.30, well past when redlands camera closes. a call to two stores in
riverside where i was at school was no go, both were out of NPH[*]. the
next closest place was in arlington (phototorium, now wolf camera). i had
an opening between 3.30 after one class and 5 before the next class (and
the 5-6.30 class prof had emailed the class saying that tonight's session
was NOT to be missed). so I get cleared to pick up the scope, pack it, go
get the car, load it, get fuel in the car which was running on empty) and
get on the road....
took all of half hour to move a couple of miles, traffic was dead stopped
due to an incident in the interchange i needed to hit--found out AFTER
getting stuck in the middle, no way out, gotta calm down and ride it out.
once road opened up, get on the loud pedal and make it the film place.
ironically, i was told to get it from redlands camera as phototorium/wolf
camera would charge me through the nose, being the only other "pro" store
in the area. turns out it cost 5 $ and change, LESS than redlands camera by
3$.
Already 5pm. If traffic is light, I can make class at 5.10, give or take a
couple. Made it to class at 5.15, to the relief of prof who was worrying
that the "regulars" were skipping a critical class. blah blah, class, blah
blah.
get back on the road come home. grab some thing to eat while searching the
web for the elusive exposure guide table telling me just how long to take
the picture for. running through google, most of the website are very
general, nothing helpful. Fred Espenak's website, which is the de facto
repository of all thing loony (hahaha), well, the images won't load! either
they have been taken out or the site is suffering from too much traffic and
I can't access it! the exposure table is an image i wanted to print, the
only format he has--and i can't get to it! the troubles are just starting:
it gets better!
Changing a few keywords, etc etc and finally I get something usable to work
with.
Having shot--or attempted--two previous lunar eclipses, I feel good; I know
what to do, what not to do, I have the gear, I know how to put it together
and strip it down quickly, it won't be so cold as to hinder finger
dexterity on ice cold metal parts, clouds cleared up, a bit hazy on the
horizon--which might yield a nice dark red tint to totality, so it's all
good. since the first two had their own set of misadventures, i figure i've
covered all the "what else can go wrong" bases, and this time, i'm gonna
have a real keeper, something to hang on the wall! [**]
get in the car, drive past the lookout point onto a dirt cliff overlooking
the highway: the spot farthest from ambient city lighting I could think
off, far enough off the road that car lights won't be a issue. turn out
quite a crowd had gathered at the lookout point to check out the eclipse,
and both sides of the narrow 2 lane road were flanked with parked cars,
people outside watching. wow, that was unexpected. i guess the last eclipse
in january was too cold for the critters to come out :) it was pleasant
weather this time around ("pleasant" enough for killer sized bugs of all
sorts to be out in force. yuck).
so i slowly make my up the dirt trail trying not to bang the undercarriage
of the sedan or toss up so much dirt as to piss off anyone downwind. there
was one car parked smack right in the middle, so i had to "off road"
through the wildflowers to get around it. top of the trail was another car
parked sideways, two ppl out with tripods and cameras.
time to pull out the big glass: 8" Meade SCT. set it up quickly with help
from dad, roughly aligning it with the north star (as luck would have it, I
picked up a power inverter to drive the clockwork in the scope when getting
the couplings and other bits). hooked it up to the car battery, and yes the
beast starts ticking. set up the telrad, try to find the already very very
dark moon in the upside-down backwards view. voila, a coffee colored orb
hanging in the distance. nice. getting light on the left side, but i was in
no hurry--i was thinking the moon would be going INTO totality. as i later
learned, it was coming OUT of totality. guess my time zone conversions must
have transposed digits.
since i figured the moon was yet to reach totality, might as well look at
it through the scope, and worry about pictures once it went dark. bad idea.
starters, the Tmount to OM adapter needed to hitch my camera to the scope
is missing. the suspect in the bag from school is something similar but for
ANOTHER camera system. since they all look like a metal ring, i figured it
was mine. well it wasn't. major bummer.
a quick call to home, asking bro to rummage through my camera junk to find
said critical piece. and bring my other even older camera (passed down from
grandfather) and the adapter for THAT camera, which I know I have (Roger
Skully, if you are reading this, I believe you were the gracious individual
to send me that vintage bit, gratis).
by the time my bro gets it to me, the moon looks like a diamond ring, or
what is properly terms the japanese lantern effect methinks. i'm thinking,
wow, very pretty. but how odd that it's takign up that effect going INTO
totality, it usually happens coming OUT of totality...right? too busy
trying to figure out how to rig the camera to take a picture to pay
attention to time. yes, the moon was coming out of totality as i was very
shocked to learn a few minutes later. oh well.
ah, but we haven't gotten to the fun part yet... the part where i couldn't
fit the Tmount on the Exa (the very old camera). on one hand, i'm
absolutely certain i've got the right pieces and i'm putting it on the
correct way, but the darn ring won't lock into place!
before i go farther, i should note that my locking cable release, the bit
that holds down the camera shutter remotely so my nervous hands don't fudge
the picture, is also missing in action. some rubber bands and a paperclip
are on my wrist to serve as replacements. said rubberbands are now doing
duty holding the camera to the telescope tube, roughly, while i press on it
to keep it stable and not rotate under its own weight. a few pictures are
snapped that way. oh yes, i should mention i had loaded the olympus camera
but now had to perform a mid roll rewind to load the antiquated Exa, a real
pain in the neck. i think i took 3 shots that way.
so now the moon is halfway out of eclipse. and all i have is the
possibility of three lousy rotten shots taken with a 40+ yr old camera
rubberbanded to a telescope.
done taking a few pics, moon almost all out of eclipse, time to put the
camera back. hey, what's this now? i can't get the lens back on? no way! it
will twist just so, but no more, won't lock into place. this is really
weird. so this means maybe i had the correct Tmount after all, maybe i need
to figure out how to put it on. i mean just how hard can it be? align the
red dots, insert, twist, lock. everything works except the twist/lock part.
now i'm really scratching my head: not only won't this Tmount not fit, but
neither will the lens i JUST took off the camera. it's an old thing, and
i'm fairly certain i'm applying more force than is prudent. i know that
i've done this before, and there is a slight trick to putting it back on,
but i can't recall what.
pissed off, i give it a sharp twist...snap & click. it locks! so the trick
was to use quite a bit of force, lot more than what i deemed necessary for
an antique piece. well, now that i have it on, might as well put it on the
scope and get a pic of the almost fully bright moon. snap snap.
but there is hope. 3 attempts at eclipse, i think now i've REALLY covered
all the bases: the only place left is home plate--the November 8/9 2003
lunar eclipse, the last one for USA till 2007, is gonna be great. i've done
all the usual foulups: bad alignment, bad timing, bad exposure, bad
guiding, forgetting equipment. now there is NOTHING left to mess up.
November. I'm looking for a real wall hanger then. Yessiree. that's what i
said the past three times, and i'm batting .000 and you can't go below
that, or as the song goes, you can't fall off the floor :) on a more
realistic note, as i recall from high school statistics, just because i
struck out the first two times doesn't mean i'll hit a homer the third try.
but i can try! and that's half the fun.
if you read this far, you're almost there! thanks for keep up :)
so here's wishing clear skies to y'all come November, and good shooting
till then!
--
/Siddiq
* NPH chosen due to film speed (shoot faster shutter, not worry about
vibration/tracking errors as much) and wide latitude to capture
shadow/highlite information. for certain kinds of shooting, the price
premium over consumer grade film is definitely worth it.
** interested parties may note my previous eclipse experience was eclipsed--
sorry for the pun--by an incredibly thick marine layer. i stayed up till
4am and drove from where i am down to the coast (75-80 miles one way) to
shoot the eclipsed moon setting over the pacific. couldn't see diddly squat
through the pea-soup thick salty stuff in the air. and the salty air really
makes you feel icky. my first experience shooting a lunar eclipse was
probably the most productive of the three, since i got one decent shot,
albiet blurred (this time, the story was lining the telescope w/ polaris to
track the moon would interfere with camera coupling, so i had to guide it
using a very nervous hand, blindly, since you can't see through the camera
while it is taking a picture! and exposures ran far too long, since i had
forgotten to bring the table i so duly printed. in essense, i was guiding
because i thought i needed a long exposure, when a much short one would
suffice, had i had the table with me)
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