2007 lunar eclipses, by Becky, and Stuart

Today we have two for the price of one; two Pictures of the Day!

Click image to see a larger view in Becky's gallery.

Click image to see a larger view in Stuart's gallery.

I'd better explain what's happened with today's Pictures (plural) of the Day. I originally came across the 2007 lunar eclipse sequence in Becky's gallery (Becky is better known with her curious forum name of ryme-intrensica). The usual procedure is to contact POTD nominees and to get some background feedback that gets included in the POTD article. Becky was out of touch for some time and then I came across Stuart's (who has an equally curious forum name of Goatsmilkuk) similar picture in his gallery. As I'd not heard from Becky, I proposed to use Stuart's image. Then Becky got in touch, so I've decided to use both pictures today!

Let's hear from Becky first: "Really sorry about the delay! I always forget to check my private messages." No problem Becky, we got there in the end!"

"I'm glad you like the eclipse montage, thank you. The photos were taken in March 2007. Prior to that, I'd been taking a lot of photos with a little Fuji compact, but when I heard that there was a total lunar eclipse on the way, I decided that it was a good excuse to buy a DSLR, which I'd wanted for some time!

"The first few photos were taken from Durlston Country Park in Swanage, Dorset - it's very dark there, there's no light pollution. The last few were taken from my driveway, simply because my husband was the one who drove me up to Durlston, and he wanted to come back home for some sleep!

"Because the SLR was so new to me, I have to be honest, it was a case of taking lots of photos at different shutter speeds, and seeing which worked best. I took about a hundred photos in all, over the space of three hours. I used a Nikon D40, a 55-200mm Nikkor lens and a tripod.

"Regarding the montage - I put this together recently for the fortnightly salon, using Photoshop 7. All of the photos were taken at 200mm, so the moon was the same size in each shot. I made a background layer, on which I marked out rough positions for the moon, then six layers, one for each moon. I then just fiddled around until they looked straight, and cropped each image so that they didn't overlap one another.

"I've recently upgraded to a Nikon D80, which I love. My favourite subject for photos is the Dorset landscape. I had a baby on New Year's Day, and since then, photography has kept me sane! Baby and I go for long walks, and I take photos along the way. She's very patient, bless her!"

Thanks Becky - and congratulations on a really good montage - much better than I managed (though I blame the cloud where is was!).

Now on to Stuart, who used a telescope for his eclipse sequence: "I remember we had friends at our house that night. I had my telescope an Orion Europa 150 (6" Newtonian) set up with my Canon 300D attached to it via a T adaptor. Every 10 minutes or so I would go out into the garden and take a few shots after aligning the scope up with the Moon. I ended up with quite a few shots in the end. I then selected the ones I liked the most and put them in order on a black background in photoshop.

"I'm now just starting to get into portrait photography having purchased a Canon 40D, 50mm f1.8 mkII, a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 and a Bowens Esprit 500w 2 head kit. My son, who is now 17 months old, is my model and seems to enjoy having his picture taken.

"I do tend to enjoy my hobbies which range from brewing beer (just about to step it up a gear and do it from scratch), drums, guitar, astronomy and photography. Would have to say photography is my number one hobby."

And congratulations to you as well, Stuart!

My only question to you both, is - how come the moon's shadow is at a different angle in your respective images?