The last lunar eclipse I had clear skies for
came back in 2014. I did a bit of astrophotography for that one, and managed to put together a crude animation of the event. It didn't turn out great, because I had no plan going in, but was a neat proof of concept. For the 2022 eclipse, which May 15, I planned to do better.
Except that I forgot about it completely, until Lisa stuck her head into my office and asked if I was interested in watching the eclipse, which had already begun. Argh! There wasn't time to set up my telescope (762mm focal length!) and calibrate its equitorial tracking, which meant I would not be repeating the animation trick this time around. So instead I settled for using my Canon FD 500mm f/8 reflex lens (converted to EOS mount by yours truly) on my tripod-mounted 7D. The results of this setup were... okay. Adjusting the camera on the tripod was a real pain. You forget just how convenient an equatorial mount is for making tiny observational adjustments until you don't have it. The 500mm lens I used is, in fact, a small telescope. Emphasis on small. Still, it performed as well as can be expected and respectably documented the event. Next time, though, I'm going to plan better...
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