{"id":31095,"date":"2022-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=31095"},"modified":"2022-04-29T14:13:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T14:13:16","slug":"capture-make-a-lunar-eclipse-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/04\/21\/capture-make-a-lunar-eclipse-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"Capture: Make a lunar eclipse animation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
CAPTURE<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Make a lunar eclipse animation<\/h2>\n\n

How to capture an entire lunar eclipse and create a flip-book style record from still frames<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Aim to take photos of the Moon every 5\u201310 minutes during the eclipse <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The total lunar eclipse on the morning of 16 May will be challenging: the the Moon will set around 05:00 BST (04:00 UT), just after the point of greatest eclipse and during morning twilight. The first part of the eclipse begins at 02:32 BST (01:32 UT) as the Moon moves into Earth\u2019s weak penumbral shadow, but this is hard to see visually. As the Moon progresses into the penumbral shadow, heading towards the outer edge of the umbral shadow, so the presence of the penumbra becomes more noticeable as a dark shading. The geometry of this eclipse means the line of approach towards the umbral shadow is optimised.<\/p>\n\n

Capturing the whole event<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Our challenge this month is to record the entire eclipse from just before the penumbral insertion, in the form of an animation. For this to work, you\u2019ll need a photographic setup, which can record the Moon as a demonstrable disc. A 500mm-plus focal length will deliver this. Coupling your camera to a telescope with a focal length around the 1,000mm mark will be ideal.<\/p>\n\n

Aim to take photos of the eclipse every 5\u201310 minutes over its duration. The brightening dawn twilight will need careful exposure adjustment to avoid overexposing the sky. This is important when totality arrives, as the Moon will be darker and the sky will brighten. Overexposing the dark umbral shadow brings out its colour at the expense of overexposing the penumbral eclipsed region.<\/p>\n\n

Once the event has concluded, load each image into a layer-based editor, in time order, with the earliest image at the lowest level. Working up from the bottom of the stack, adjust the position of each lunar disc so that the high contrast features align. Next, it pays to check the edge space around each image in case the alignment process has brought the border of the image frame into view, creating a gap at the image frame\u2019s edge. If this is the case, fill in the gap. As a clean-up process, crop the image to chop off any excess bits, which may have become dragged off beyond the image border.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s a good idea to save this image stack and keep it to one side, opening a copy of it for further work. In this way, if you do things to the image frames, for example by adjusting their brightness and contrast, and get it wrong you can always scrap the edit and go back. If the original stack has a large frame size, you may need to reduce this for animation purposes. A smaller frame will work well on a computer screen, produce a smaller, more transportable animation file and play in a smoother fashion. Keeping the large original safe will allow you to revisit it if the need arises. Once you\u2019ve created the master frame stack, you can make a \u2018flick-book\u2019 animation. In our \u2018Step by Step\u2019 guide we look at using the freeware PIPP application (bit.ly\/3x2vCJ3<\/a>) for this task. If it works, you\u2019ll have an impressive animation to share with others.<\/p>\n\n

Equipment: a colour photographic camera (eg DSLR or MILC) with a 500mm or greater lens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Step by step<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
STEP 1<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Take full lunar disc images at regular periods, of say 5-10 minutes from the start of the eclipse to moonset. An equatorial mount will remove frame rotation, which occurs when using an altaz setup. Camera adjustment is necessary as dawn breaks. Check the image histogram and avoid over-exposure of the sky.<\/p>\n\n

STEP 2<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

When all your images are taken, download them to a computer. Open each shot and copy and paste as a separate layer into a master image, maintaining their time order in the layer stack. Next, align, tidy the edges and crop the final layer stack. Save the stack under a master file name, before working on a copy.<\/p>\n\n

STEP 3<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

If you follow the main article you should end up with a number of eclipse images in a layer stack. Resize a copy of the master file to, say, 600 pixels-wide and save each layer as a sequence-numbered single image. Open PIPP and add all of the images into the \u2018Source Files\u2019 list. Dismiss the \u2018Join mode\u2019 message that pops up.<\/p>\n\n

STEP 4<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Ensure the frames are shown in the desired order, reflecting the sequence numbers given under Step 3 \u2013 001, 002 etc. Make sure the \u2018Planetary Animation\u2019 option is ticked in the \u2018Optimise\u2019 panel. Under the \u2018Processing Options\u2019 tab, deselect all options. The alignment etc, will have been done building the layer stack.<\/p>\n\n

STEP 5<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The \u2018Animation Options\u2019 tab allows you to adjust the playback, so you can decide, for example, if you want to pause and reverse the sequence at the end. The \u2018Output Options\u2019 tab allows you to select the type of file to generate. We recommend AVI format with a 10 frames per second playback speed. Adjust \u2018Quality\u2019 to \u20188\u2019.<\/p>\n\n

STEP 6<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

A final function tab is \u2018Do Processing\u2019, under which you click on \u2018Start Processing\u2019 to generate your animation file. The process is quick so you can easily go back and tweak the settings until the animation runs as you want. If the final animation is too large a file, try to reduce the size of the frames you are using.<\/p>\n\n

Send your images to: gallery@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\n
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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Pete Lawrence <\/strong>is an expert astro-imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

ALL PICTURES: PETE LAWRENCE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to capture an entire lunar eclipse and create a flip-book style record from still frames<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"76","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"76","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_76-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_76-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-76-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-76-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086552||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086552||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.204","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.204","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.204","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.204","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617.jpg",1040,1045,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617-768x772.jpg",768,772,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617-1019x1024.jpg",800,804,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617.jpg",1040,1045,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/04\/22a93891-4805-4611-a076-95e4abb48617.jpg",1040,1045,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"How to capture an entire lunar eclipse and create a flip-book style record from still frames","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31095"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31654,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31095\/revisions\/31654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}