I wanted to shoot the lunar eclipse this past Tuesday, but I got my mornings mixed up and missed it. Bummer. I was looking forward to it, since I had some experience with it but it’d be the first time I’d tried anything like that on my own.

This and a Reuters photo blog post got me to reminiscing (see italics at bottom) and I’ve put together a quick collection of astro-photo links as well as some other information that would be helpful for photographers.

Yer Friendly Lindy Astro-Photo Link Collection and Guide Thing

• The NASA Eclipse Homepage Underpaid government employees tell you about stuff about eclipses.
• Reuters Photographers Blog: Lunar Observations The blog post that started it all. Some nice photos and some good tips for lunar eclipse photography
• “Lunar Eclipse Photography” by Fred Espenak By far the best in-depth how-to on shooting lunar eclipses I’ve found online
• CameraHacker.com: Capturing a Lunar Eclipse on Video It ain’t my kinda photo, but still of potential interest. Includes final video.It seems we’re out of eclipses for the year, excepting a partial solar eclipse on

It seems we’re out of eclipses for the year, excepting a partial solar eclipse on Sept. 11, 2007, that will only be visible in South American and Antartica. However, fellow North Americans, you can mark your calendars:

• Feb. 21, 2008 - total eclipse, predicted to last 51 minutes
• Feb. 9, 2009 - penumbral eclipse, (visible in west N. America)
• July 7, 2009 - penumbral eclipse
• Aug. 6, 2009 - penumbral eclipse
• June 26, 2010 - partial eclipse, predicted to last 2 hrs. 44 min., (visible in west N. America)
• Dec. 21, 2010 - total eclipse, predicted to last 3 hrs. 29 min.

Part of the trouble with photographing eclipses, they only happens every now and then, and if you’re in the wrong place or you’re tired or working or the weather sucks, you’re out of luck. Good thing though with science, weather excepting, it’s quite predictable.

However, by following the moon phases you can shoot the moon whenever you want. NASA has 6000 years of them logged online, so take your pick. (here’s a good place to start)

And, if you keep an eye out for opportunities, there’s a pile of other interesting and predictable astro events you can shoot, with proper preparation.

Meteor Showers can be great, though not particularly easy to shoot. High-frequency ones are cool to watch, sometimes they can last for days, and since they’re typically caused by the Earth passing through the dust trail of a comet, they happen about the same time every year, so you can really plan ahead. Often the larger ones will show up in the news a few days prior.
Usually showers are named after the places in the sky they come from, so constellation maps would be helpful. And don’t worry, the odds of a meteor landing on your house are 182,138,880,000,000 to 1. Since houses are bigger than most people I know and last I checked meteors aren’t particularly attracted to irony, the odds you’ll get nailed are pretty slim (though it can happen). Heads up though, getting hit by a errant bat isn’t totally out of the question.

• Wikipedia currently has a solid table of meteor showers
• If you want more in-depth information about any and all of them, the International Meteor Organization is probably the place to get it

Some upcoming ones of note (peak is best time to shoot):

• Oct. 2- Nov. 7 (peak Oct. 21) - The Oronids (out of Orion)
• Nov. 14 - 21 (peak Nov. 17) - The Leonids (out of Leo)
• Dec. 7 -17 (peak Dec. 14) - The Geminids (out of Gemini)
• Jan. 1 - 5 (peak Jan. 3) - The Quadrantids (out of Boötes)

• See “Meteor Shower Photography” on Space.com for some tips

Aurora - You’re pretty much out of luck if you’re not up North. I’ve never seen it, but it looks lovely.

• See “How to Find and Photograph Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)” by Chris VenHaus or “How to Photograph the Aurora Borealis with a Digital Camera” on AlaskaPhotographics.com for good How-Tos.

Ice Halos - I’ve been lucky enough to catch a few of these around the Moon, and they are truly spectacular. These are more atmospheric optics than astronomy, but either way, you look up. There are many different types of halos, many of which don’t happen at night. I don’t think there is any way to plan for them, but I can only remember seeing them in the winter. Here’s Flickr galleries of Moon halos and of atmospheric halos.

Comets - A good one of these visible to the naked eye doesn’t happen very often. Comets are relatively stationary compared to stars (to our eyes), so you might want to mount your camera to a tracker to keep from getting star trails in your comet picture. You can buy em, which is expensive, or if you’ve got the time you can make one. You can even make a manually operated one. Please note I myself have never tried these particular linked plans. I don’t know of any coming soon and my head is starting to hurt trying to find an observation schedule, so you’re on your own on that one.

So… there you have it. Astrophotography ideas. Next time… how to photograph a UFO. Have fun.

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The Lindy Astro-Photo Back Story: I lived in the middle of nowhere growing up, where it is very dark and night, and every time there was an eclipse or meteor shower or comet or anything else relatively interesting and he wasn’t too tired, my hobbyist astronomer and photographer dad and I would haul his gear out to the field behind the house and do some astro / lunar photography (and yes, we did it with film).

I say “we” did it, but like with fixing cars, really he did most of the actual work and mostly I was allowed to hold stuff and keep the dogs from running into the telescope. All in all though it was fun and made some cool pictures and sometimes I even got to use them for science projects, which was way cool since nobody else’s dad in school did that.

I wish I had some of my dad’s photos scanned so I could share them here, because years later I still think they’re awesome.