Penumbral Moon

A 210mm moon shot with penumbral eclipse. The moon has been in penumbra region (shadow of earth but not complete darkness) for 54 minutes (called P1 eclipse). It is going to touch umbra region in 18 minutes (U1 start) at which time the shadow will starts to appear from top area. For more details see wikipedia article on penumbra eclipse. There is also an article about Dec. 10 eclipse with timeline. This photo was taken at 12:27 UTC (7.27 local time).

 

Since moon is so close to umbra, I was expecting to detect brightness gradient. In color image moon appears too bright and colors are distracting. I processed the raw in ACR 4.4 using linear curve to make the gradient more apparent. The darkest area at the top is at RGB21 and at the bottam it is close to RGB170, so you should be able to see full moon. The foreground was processed separately. There are some more details in color photo that you can reach by clicking on the right button.

 

One of the most fascinating moon shot I have ever taken although I did not know about the eclipse until afterwards. Thanks for looking. Comments or rating welcome.

 

as far as I know it´s the last eclipse for the next 3 yrs.

 

Frank, yes this is the last full umbra eclipse for next 3 years where complete moon goes black. There will be partial to shoot. In fact, once moon goes fully into shadow, there is nothing to photograph. Only when one edge starts coming out on the other side, there is something visible to shoot.

A really very interesting information and photograph, Sandeep! Thank you for sharing it. Best regards, Olaf

Hello Olaf, glad you find it interesting. Astronomy has always been interesting subject for me. The more we learn about it, more we realize how little we know. There is always some new fascinating topic to read.

Best wishes to you for christmas season... Sandeep

Very nice. It reminds me of Adam's "Moonrise, Hernandez NM". Great tones and no flare on the building lights make it a superb photo..

James, never in my wildest dream had I thought one of my photo will remind somebody of Ansel Adam's "Moonrise, Hernandez NM". That is one of the greatest photo I have ever seen. A masterpiece... there is so much beauty in simplicity of that photo. 

There is something in BW photos that makes them appear both real and fantastic at the same time. It is this mix that makes the photo interesting. When I compare this BW to colored version, they feel completely different. I find much more freedom in toning of BW photo without having to worry about color faithfulness. Thanks again for kind words.

Sandeep

Best regards Sandeep!

PDE

Thanks for your visit Pierre. Glad you like this one. 

Best wishes... Sandeep

Very Impressive!

Thank Tony. Your visit is always a pleasure. I have been out of touch with your recent work since I got busy with other things. Will catch up with you soon. Take care...