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You are here: Home / Galleries / Photographing the Super “Blood” Moon Lunar Eclipse with the Panasonic GX8
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Photographing the Super “Blood” Moon Lunar Eclipse with the Panasonic GX8

28/09/2015 By Heather

Last night, we and the rest of the world were witnesses to an event that only happens a few times per century, a super blood moon lunar eclipse. To give you an idea of the infrequency of this event, the last one happened before Mathieu and I were born and the next one won’t happen until 2033!

During a super blood moon lunar eclipse, the moon is at the place in its orbit where it’s closest to earth, and appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. The reason it is called a “blood moon” is because at the height of the eclipse, the moon takes on a deep red hue caused by the sun’s rays being reflected onto its surface.

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse lasts much of the night. This year’s event began at around 1:10 a.m. (BST) and was fully emerged in the earth’s shadow by 3:11 a.m. (BST). By 6:24 a.m. (BST) the show had come to a close.

Since the longest lenses we had on hand were the Lumix 35-100mm f/2.8 and 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6, we popped them on the GX8 and tried our hand at shooting the first part of the eclipse (following two very large cups of coffee and a three hour nap)!

Helpful Tips:

  • Use a tripod for maximum stability.
  • When shooting the moon with a mirrorless camera, it is always a good idea to turn on the constant preview option in the menu. Doing so will give you an actual preview of your exposure and thus a clearer view of the moon. On the Panasonic GX8, it can be found in the Custom menu on page 5/9. If you do not activate this option, all you will see is a bright featureless circle.
  • Use manual focus. This will ensure that your focus does not change during the eclipse.
  • Enable magnification and peaking to help bring the moon into focus.

During the first stage, we opted for the 14-140mm (28-280mm equivalent) since it is the longer of the two. The moon was extremely bright, allowing us to use ISO 200, f/5.6 and shutter speeds between 1/200s and 1/320s.

DMC-GX8, 1/320, f/ 28/5, ISO 200
DMC-GX8, 1/320, f/5.6, ISO 200 – 140mm (280mm on full-frame) – crop

As it took on a crescent shape, we had to raise the ISO to 800. Anything beyond this resulted in an unacceptable deterioration in detail on the moon’s surface.

DMC-GX8, 1/160, f/ 28/5, ISO 800
DMC-GX8, 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 800 – 140mm (280mm on full-frame) – crop

By the time the earth’s shadow had completely enshrouded the moon, we had to switch to the 35-100mm to take advantage of its f/2.8 aperture. To capture as much detail as possible, we kept the ISO at 800 and reduced the shutter speed to 0.4s.

DMC-GX8, 4/10, f/ 28/10, ISO 800
DMC-GX8, 0.4s, f/2.8, ISO 800 – original

Knowing that the Panasonic GX8 has a 20MP sensor, we felt comfortable cropping the images in post production to centre the moon and eliminate the excess space around it.

DMC-GX8, 2/5, f/ 14/5, ISO 800
DMC-GX8, 0.4, f/ 2.8, ISO 800 – 100mm (200mm on full-frame) – crop

Below you can find a composite of the moon as it transitions through the first half of the eclipse.

The Super Blood Moon - Lunar Eclipse
The Super Blood Moon – Lunar Eclipse

We also made good use of the GX8’s 4K Photo feature by taking a very basic 4K video clip from which we extracted an 8MP JPG. I was pleased to see how well the Vivid profile brought out the deep reds of the moon as it reached totality.

DMC-GX8, 10/25, f/ 28/10, ISO 800
DMC-GX8, 0.4s, f/ 2.8, ISO 800 – 4K Photo

Did you manage to shoot the lunar eclipse? If so, please feel free to share your experience below!

supermoon lunar eclipse september 2015

Filed Under: Galleries, Panasonic Gallery

About Heather

Heather Broster was born in Canada, has lived in Japan and Italy but currently calls Wales home. She is a full-time gear tester at MirrorLessons. You can follow her on Google+, Twitter or Facebook!

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