Don’t miss it. This is the last total lunar eclipse for three years.  This article shows you how to see and photograph it.

When Will the Eclipse Happen?

In the U.S. the eclipse happens November 8, after midnight and continues through the night until morning or very early morning. Here are the times of the phases for CST.

Penumbral eclipse begins November 8 at 2:02 am CST.
Partial eclipse begins November 8 at 3:09 am CST.
Full eclipse begins November 8 at 4:14 am CST.
Maximum eclipse is November 8 at 4:59 am CST.
Full eclipse ends November 8 at 5:41 am CST.
Partial eclipse ends November 8 at 6:49 am CST.
Penumbral eclipse ends November 8 at 7:56 am CST.

All lunar eclipse events happen at the exactly same moment in time (not the same clock time), no matter where you live or what time zone you are in, so you will need to convert these times for your time zone. For example, maximum eclipse is at 5:59 am EST, 3:59 am MST, and 2:59 am PST.

How Much of the Eclipse Can I see at My Location?

Not all phases of the eclipse will be visible in all time zones. If you live in the central and western U.S. you will be able to see all or almost all of the eclipse. In the Eastern U.S. you will miss some of the eclipse. Check the Time and Date and Earth and Sky links below for more details.

The moon will move westward across the sky during the eclipse. Just look up in the southern and southwestern sky, find the moon, and follow it throughout the eclipse.

“Blood moon” refers to the yellow-orange-copper color of the moon during eclipse totality. This happens with almost all total lunar eclipses unless there are unusual atmospheric circumstances. The intensity of the color varies with each eclipse, due to the amount of moisture and dust particles in the air.

Some people flood the internet with weird super moon, blood moon, and blue moon memes with no basis in scientific fact and sometime outright nonsense (“once in a lifetime”, “first time in 300 years”, “this super blood moon will activate the psychic powers of your liver”).  And finally, super moon and blood moon are used by some people to promote religious prophecies, usually of impending doom.

Photography Equipment

You will need a camera with a long lens. The longer the focal length of your lens, the bigger the moon will be. If you have a lens that is 200-400mm in focal length or longer you will get a relatively nice sized moon. The effective 35mm focal length of the image above was 456mm (285mm focal length on a camera with a 1.6X field of view crop). Much shorter than 200mm and the moon will look disappointingly small compared to the nice eclipse photos you see online and in magazines.

A sturdy tripod and tripod head are essential. At totality you will need exposures time around 1 to 2 seconds so you can’t reliably hand hold your camera.

If you don’t have a long lens, you can still take eclipse photos by making them more about the night sky that just happens to have a small, yellow-orange moon in the photo.

Techniques

Techniques for all lunar eclipses are pretty much the same.

If your camera isn’t already set up this way, set your camera to capture RAW plus JPEG files at the highest resolution, set the color space to Adobe RGB (1998), and set the white balance to daylight. All of this will give you better image quality when it comes time to do the post processing.

Critical focus can be hard to achieve and you can’t put your ultimate trust in autofocus. The best way to focus is to use your camera’s “live view” mode. Before the eclipse starts, begin with your camera in normal viewing mode (through the viewfinder) and autofocus on the moon. Then turn autofocus off. Turn on live view mode, center the moon in the viewfinder, and magnify the image to 10x on the LCD and manually focus the lens. Take a test shot and magnify the image to make sure everything looks sharp. For more information, read How To Get Critical Focus in Live View Mode with a Magnified Image.

If everything looks sharp it is a good idea to tape the focusing ring in place so it doesn’t move. Don’t use duct tape! Gaffer’s tape is best and painter’s tape would be the second choice.

In “live view” mode the mirror of a DSLR is is locked up. That is a good thing – you won’t get image degradation due to mirror slap. So it is best to leave the camera in live view mode. If your camera doesn’t have a reflex mirror you don’t need to worry about this.

You don’t want to jiggle the camera by pushing the shutter button, so turn on the two second self timer so there is time for vibrations to die down after you push the shutter button. It would be even better to use an electronic cable release.

Incidentally, live view mode will drain the battery faster than normal viewing mode, especially in cold weather, so make sure you charge your battery and backup battery the night before the eclipse.

Exposure

This article assumes you understand exposure basics and the interactions of aperture settings, shutter speeds and ISO settings. If not, read the exposure series which begins here.

Don’t trust auto exposure. Set you camera to manual metering mode and use the following guidelines.

Before the eclipse begins, set your aperture to f/8, your shutter to 1/100 second shutter, and the ISO to 100 and take a picture. Feel free to bracket by using shutter speeds of 1/200 and 1/50.

As the eclipse progresses and the moon gets darker, you will need to gradually increase the ISO and the shutter speed. While your LCD images are not a totally accurate guide to exposure, keep an eye on the images to make sure your moon isn’t totally washed out or really, really dark. Bracket your exposures from a little too light to a little too dark.

It is impossible to predict how dark each lunar eclipse will be at totality so I can’t tell you in advance what the exact correct exposure will be. Generally you will end up around 1 or 2 seconds with an ISO of 1600, but be flexible. For the 2015 eclipse above I ended up with 1 and 2 second shutter speeds at ISO 1600.

During a two second exposure stars will trail a bit during the exposure, along with some potential blurring of the moon. You can minimize blurring of the moon with an astronomical clock drive set to the motion of the moon (not the motion of the stars). The good news is you can get a surprisingly good image of the moon in a 1 or 2 second exposure without a clock drive as long as you aren’t using a super long lens (500mm and up). The photo at the top was taken at 2 seconds without a clock drive.

Do not use a shutter speed longer than 2 seconds with lenses as long as 300-400mm. Do not use a shutter speed longer than 1 second with lenses 600mm or longer. If the moon is too dark, go to a higher ISO.

Post Processing

ISO 1600 means a fair amount of noise. Some judicious post processing with Adobe Camera Raw will help reduce the noise to have a cleaner image. You may need to adjust the exposure, clarity, and vibrance sliders in the basic panel to get the optimum image.

If you don’t get a chance to photograph this lunar eclipse, you can always use these techniques on the next one. It will be Monday and Tuesday, November 7-8, 2022. For North America, totality will be in the wee small hours of November 8. Earth and Sky, Time and Date, and Space.com will let you know when the next lunar eclipse is going to occur.

Lunar Eclipse Photo Data: Canon 7D Mark II. Canon EF 70-300 f/45.-5.6 DO IS USM lens at 285mm. 2 sec, f/8, ISO 1600.

Eclipse Links

The November 8 eclipse at Earth and Sky

The November 8 eclipse at Time and Date

Photography Links

How To Get Critical Focus in Live View Mode with a Magnified Image

How To Focus Your Lens at Infinity for Night Photography

Why Is Exposure So Important? – the Exposure Series

Book Links

If you want to know more about photographic exposure, making the most of your camera gear, night sky photography, landscapes photography, wildlife photography and a whole lot more, read Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies, one of the highest rated photography books at Amazon.com. Learn more about the book here and order it here.

The Best Night, Astronomy, and Astrophotography Books