Starship Asterisk*

Lunar Eclipse over Cologne Cathedral

Explanation: Why would a bright full Moon suddenly become dark? Because it entered the shadow of the Earth. That's what happened Sunday night as the Moon underwent a total lunar eclipse. Dubbed by some as a Super (because the Moon was angularly larger than usual, at least slightly) Blood (because the scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere makes an eclipsed Moon appeared unusually red) Wolf (because January full moons are sometimes called Wolf Moons from the legend that wolves like to howl at the moon) Moon Eclipse, the shadowy spectacle was visible from the half of the Earth then facing the Moon, and was captured in numerous spectacular photographs. Featured, a notable image sequence was captured over the Cologne Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Cologne, Germany. The lunar eclipse sequence was composed from 68 different exposures captured over three hours during freezing temperatures -- and later digitally combined and edited to remove a cyclist and a pedestrian. The next total lunar eclipse will occur in 2021.

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I was on the wrong side of the planet to see this eclipse, but I was still actively involved. I walked out into my garden, under the brutal summer sun, and blocked some of the sunlight for a few minutes during totality.

Another composite photo that will no doubt incur the wrath of the purists!
I'd be interested to know how it was done as the street lights would have overexposed the image if set for the Moon even before the eclipse.

If I were to take exception, it would be to the Asterisk panderirng to media nomenclature. "Super" Moon - the Moon is closer and so larger in view, but invisibly so. Is this astronomer's jargon misappropriated? "Blood" Moon - oh, for goodness sake, we are beyond astrological predictions of doom and gloom, surely a red Moon is suffiicient? And Wolf Moon? Gimme strength. Or rather, serenity!

John

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:08 am Another composite photo that will no doubt incur the wrath of the purists!
I'd be interested to know how it was done as the street lights would have overexposed the image if set for the Moon even before the eclipse.

John

If I am not mistaken by the photographer's explanation in the composed from link, there were 68 images of the eclipse, and 3 images of the foreground which were combined and edited to remove a cyclist and pedestrian. I suppose the foreground wasn't in at least 65 of the images.

I like the composition. Martin Junius put a lot of thought, effort, and time in his work. I had favorable weather and did get a few pictures of the eclipse, but nothing like his.

+1

Thanks, De58te!
Then this isn't a "Lunar Eclipse over Cologne Cathedral", it's a sequence of the eclipse from near Cologne, superimposed on a Tourist office-ish picture of the cathedral at night. Was the Moon really seen to skim the topmost tower from that spot? It could not, else the floodlit cathedral would have outshone the dimmed Lunar disc.
The previous composite had relevance - the photographer was on a peak above a lit-up valley to take meteor pics, and put a really good one over a staged shot of a happy looking observer. This one seems irrelevant - nor wrong, but more artificial.

John

We were wet and cloudy... I did see the Moon, but not in eclipse... it was full, and behind some clouds...

interesting Apod, showing the many stages of the eclipse...

:---[===] *

De58te wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:21 am If I am not mistaken by the photographer's explanation in the composed from link, there were 68 images of the eclipse, and 3 images of the foreground which were combined and edited to remove a cyclist and pedestrian. I suppose the foreground wasn't in at least 65 of the images.

Indeed. The foreground and pre-dawn sky are mainly from the last image, overlayed with the two previous images to remove the washed out "ghosts" of a cyclist/pedestrian. All the moons were layered in Photoshop's "lighten" mode (masked). I couldn't simply use "lighten" mode (or e.g. StarStax) for the complete images, as my tripod wasn't heavy/stable enough to allow for pixel level acuracy over the course of 3h.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D MkII
Lens: EF 17-40mm f/4L @ 29mm
Single exposures: M 2s, f/11, ISO 800
plus a bit of tweaking in LR

The exposure was matched for the totally eclipsed moon, luckily this didn't blew out the foreground. The street lights of course are blown out and created some not so nice reflections/stray light beams.

Martin

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm Then this isn't a "Lunar Eclipse over Cologne Cathedral", it's a sequence of the eclipse from near Cologne, superimposed on a Tourist office-ish picture of the cathedral at night. Was the Moon really seen to skim the topmost tower from that spot? It could not, else the floodlit cathedral would have outshone the dimmed Lunar disc.

Actually I photographed my wife's pearl necklace and photoshopped it into the result.
Well, serious, the location was
https://www.google.de/maps/place/50%C2% ... d6.9627127
Feel free to do the necessary calculation yourself, the lit facade of the cathedral is about twice as bright as the fully eclipsed moon.

Martin

And thanks to all for your comments, including the "interesting" ones.

More images here
https://photo.m-j-s.net/blog/photograph ... ipse-2019/
including two singles from the trail.

Martin

Lovely composition of Kölner Dom just nicking a passing eclipsed moon.
You've made it look like a peaceful evening in the city.

It looks as though someone must have done a great deal of work cleaning those spires since I saw it.
I last saw it in 1994, I think. The cathedral looked pretty black and dirty up there.

mjunius wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:36 pm

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm Then this isn't a "Lunar Eclipse over Cologne Cathedral", it's a sequence of the eclipse from near Cologne, superimposed on a Tourist office-ish picture of the cathedral at night. Was the Moon really seen to skim the topmost tower from that spot? It could not, else the floodlit cathedral would have outshone the dimmed Lunar disc.

Acutally I photographed my wife's pearl necklace and photoshopped it into the result.
Well, serious, the location was
https://www.google.de/maps/place/50%C2% ... d6.9627127
Feel free to do the necessary calculation yourself, the lit facade of the cathedral is about twice as bright as the fully eclipsed moon.

Martin

Thanks, Martin! Sorry to doubt you! You are a steely-eyed lensman!
John

MarkBour wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:29 am Lovely composition of Kölner Dom just nicking a passing eclipsed moon.
You've made it look like a peaceful evening in the city.

Thanks.

Morning, to be precise. And too cold for beggars and drug dealers.

MarkBour wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:29 am It looks as though someone must have done a great deal of work cleaning those spires since I saw it.
I last saw it in 1994, I think. The cathedral looked pretty black and dirty up there.

Well, the illumination is sort of hiding that. In the daylight several parts still look dark and dirty. Not really dirt though, erosion is taking a hefty toll on the sand stone.

Martin

Feb. 10, 2009 lunar eclipse as seen from lunar orbit by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter. The bright ring around the Earth is caused by sunlight refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere. A peek of sunlight shows in the final frame at right. Although we can’t see it because it’s in shadow, the Earth is rising over the moon from left to right — the reason it’s missing its bottom in the sequence. JAXA / NHP

neufer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:41 pm Feb. 10, 2009 lunar eclipse as seen from lunar orbit by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter. JAXA / NHP

That was pretty cool. Every eclipse is a 3-body alignment. This is 4 bodies, if you count the artificial spacecraft as one. I don't mean to imply that it is special, the spacecraft was always right there to capture the other 3, but it makes for a very interesting visual. I think the image might be more interesting if the spacecraft was in Earth's shadow, and the Moon was nearby, but not in shadow.

Kaguya is gone now. The Chinese Magpie Bridge might get some interesting views, like I'm imagining, but I doubt it has a camera on it. When SpaceX sends tourists around the far side of the Moon, maybe they ought to try for a bit of this alignment. ... Or maybe they should just focus on trying to not kill them.