Western Railroad Discussion > shooting the moon (pitch, anyone?)

I learned how to shoot the moon long before I ever seriously picked up a camera. I grew up playing a few variations of the card game called “Pitch”. And wouldn’t ya know... after I hired on in 1978 I discovered that Pitch was THE card game played by my fellow Santa Fe guys during lunch breaks in the yard & deadhead trips across the division while riding in something called “waycars”.

But my moon-shooting of the eclipse was a whole different game all together! Fear not, I was able to insert a bit of handy RR theme into my celestial observations. My hometown KP (UP) depot has been beautifully refurbished in its original position, and can be rented out for special occasions. For last night’s heavenly extravaganza it was perfectly situated to be used as foreground scenery. I set up to shoot in the depot’s event parking lot, adjusting my position as the eclipse made its arc across the sky. I recorded the actual eclipse while hand-holding 300mm of tele-boomer glass. No need for a tripod when your shutter speed is 1/500th @ ISO 200 in shutter priority. Who needs depth-of-field when the field is pure black? For the depot shots I experimented with fill-flash at different, elevated shutter speeds. No way I would be able to combine a tele-moon shot with a flash depot shot. That composite shot(s) will have to wait for some Photoshop trickery. Which should occupy my entire afternoon... ;^)

1. The moon is in the sky above the old UP passenger depot. The eclipse is well underway at approximately 9:40 PM. The time is probably a few minutes off. I have yet to see a DSLR keep strictly accurate time. I meant to adjust my D7100’s internal clock to perfect CDT before shooting, but just plain forgot...

2. Here’s the depot at 10:02 PM, or there abouts. I was forced to shoot @ 24mm to dodge around trees and other inconvenient obstructions. The teeny-tiny moon has a serious chunk missing...
(2 photos taken on Manhattan, KS on May 15, 2022)

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

---

---

Nice. that's the way the moon looked from my backyard in picture #2.

Larry

Nice shot! I struggled with the exposure before totality but got a couple of shots during totality. Oh well, we have another chance next November....

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

---

Great work, guys!  Phabulous photos.

Bob W.

Great photos.

Posted from iPhone

mojaveflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh well, we have another chance next
> November....

Or this summer when the west coast has its annual firefest.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Thanks for sharing these guys.  Lance, that station shot's hot and James, your totality is really TOTAL !!

Kent in CArmel Valley

Great stuff all around!!! Thank you for sharing your shots.