A Vancouver photographer captured a stunning perspective of a total lunar eclipse in the local sky — even though it was snowing during part of the rare stellar event. Locals got the chance to see the last lunar eclipse for the next three years in the early hours of Tuesday (November 8). Viewing conditions are of course dependent on the weather, and many people decided to stay indoors after an unusually early snow on Monday night. But one dedicated astrophotographer braved the elements in hopes of capturing the rare sighting in Vancouver. Liron Gertsman has created many stunning images of rare space events, including one that earned him a nod from NASA as one of its coveted “Astronomy Image of the Day” picks. The stunning photo shows two nebulae glowing brightly above the Lions — known as the Two Sisters, or Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn, in the Squamish language. While he faced some less-than-ideal conditions to take his photos, the odds were stacked against space enthusiasts for this week’s total lunar eclipse.
Recording the 2022 total lunar eclipse in Vancouver
Around 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Gertsman headed out to capture the eclipse, despite the fact that he felt he wouldn’t get a clear view of it through the cloud cover. He brought his Canon EOS R5, which he uses for everything from deep space to wildlife photography, as well as a 560mm lens to get a detailed perspective of the moon. To capture the total eclipse, he used a tripod and a star tracker camera mount. After aligning the star tracker with the north star, he was able to focus his camera on the moon as it moved across the sky without touching it again. In total, he captured about 1,000 timelapse images of the eclipse. But the expert astrophotographer notes that the editing process is paramount to the success of the final images. “What the camera captures is not as good as what we see with your eyes,” he told Vancouver Is Awesome, noting that even the most advanced digital cameras capture about half the dynamic range of the human eye. “The total eclipse was visible through the gaps in passing clouds between 2:16 a.m. and 3:41 a.m. this morning. While I expected the clouds to make photography difficult, they actually provided a very unique opportunity , beautifully framing the moon.” While he recorded the eclipse until about 4 a.m., Gertzman spent a few more hours editing the photos when he got home. The image he shared with VIA was taken at the end of the eclipse “so the earth’s shadow was leaving the moon and as a result, the top of the moon was getting brighter and the bottom was red-orange,” he described. “For photography, this lit up the clouds beautifully.” Check out this timelapse Gertsman shared on his Instagram.
Follow Gertsman on Instagram or see his photo on his website.
