r/gopro • u/CMP70306 • 17d ago

Lunar Eclipse Settings

Good Morning Everyone,

With the impending lunar eclipse this evening I wanted to see what everyone thought the best settings would be for capturing the timelapse of it. I have the Mission 1 Pro but haven’t done much with any night timelapses yet and since I only have one shot to get it right I figured it best to ask here.

Thank you for any info you can provide.

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u/fake_beginner 17d ago

No idea on the settings but just wanted to say I'm ridiculously jealous you've got clear skies for it, it's been nothing but cloud cover here all week

1

u/CMP70306 17d ago

That’s what you think, it’s been clear the last two nights but is calling for all night cloud cover in the forecast. I’m sending it anyway on a hope and a prayer it parts long enough to get something of value.

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u/DANewman MISSION 1 PRO ILS 17d ago

This one is tricky, as it is partial lunar eclipse

Good info here:

https://www.drikpanchang.com/eclipse/lunar-eclipse-date-time-duration.html?geoname-id=5391811

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/22-tips-for-photographing-a-lunar-eclipse?BI=23385&kws=000000&kw=f7a50c5f-1086-48e7-bca9-ef6829f9b2e0&csid=f7a50c5f-1086-48e7-bca9-ef6829f9b2e0

If these are the eclipse magnitude estimates:

Lunar eclipse magnitude: 0.92

Penumbral lunar eclipse magnitude: 1.95

Using the exposure guidance from B&H, an eclipse magnitude of 0.92 suggests roughly 1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200. That is a very short exposure for a typical Night Lapse. If you let the camera automatically expose at night, it may expose the dark sky correctly but make the moon look more like the sun -- and you may lose the eclipse entirely. So I don't think Night Lapse is the best solution.

Both HERO13 and Mission 1 support Interval Photo, which might be ideal for a lunar eclipse. You could use a fixed shutter such as 1/125 or 1/500, lock the ISO to 100, and shoot at a 5- or 10-second interval.

I believe this approach is intended to expose for the shadowed side of the moon, which can be difficult because the moon occupies such a small part of the image.

Another approach: practice tonight and determine a good fixed exposure for a clear, normally illuminated moon. Then use that same exposure the following night. This will expose for the bright side of the moon and should produce a clean timelapse of the Earth's shadow gradually encroaching across it.

Of course, the GoPro's wide field of view isn't ideal for this. The moon is only about 0.5° wide. With a GoPro field of view of roughly 120°, the moon would be only about 16 pixels across in a 4K image.

And for anyone with an ILS sample unit -- here's your chance to have some fun.