Collateral Software
A blog by fschuindt

Total lunar eclipse with an ATM Dobsonian and a modified Canon T3i

During the night of May 15th 2022, I went to the SEASE event for the total lunar eclipse at the CCTECA Planetarium Galileu Galilei, in Aracaju - SE, Brazil. I brought with me my homemade 210mm f/6.62 Newtonian Dobsonian telescope and some equipments. The Moon’s FOV on the Canon T3i with that telescope is almost the entire frame, perfect for full-disk single frame photography. That was my first time photographing a lunar eclipse, so I wanted to keep things simple.

The event was really nice, a lot of people went to watch the Moon during its transformations for the night, and I spent a lot of time handling the telescope to the public. People of all ages saw the Moon through my telescope, and I was pleased to make some friends on the spot.

Many thanks to my friend Leandro who was with me all along and helped me during all the tasks, he was super. Also thanks to the SEASE for the space and reception.

Fun fact is that a few days after my picture appeared at the local news along with some others, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ834A3z2Bc

Thanks to Augusto from SEASE for sending the pictures to them.

Author: Fernando Schuindt
License: CC BY 4.0
Camera: Modified Canon T3i (Baader BCF, by Jordan Patrick)
Camera Settings: ISO 1600~3200, 1/5~1/2”, f/6.62*
Lens/Telescope: Kugelblitz handmade telescope (210mm aperture, 1390mm focal length, f/6.62, Newtonian)
Processing: Capturing without software, Photoshop camera RAW filter, crop, resize and arrangement
Location Name: Aracaju - Sergipe, Brazil
Location Aprox. Coordinates: 10°56’39.0”S 37°03’21.0”W
Theme: Total lunar eclipse
Composition: 4 single frames, one for each moment of the eclipse
Timestamp (Local Time, UTC-3): 15-05-2022 00:29:18 ~ 16-05-2022 01:16:44
Full Resolution Images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5dNkmo72mZEEFyir7

Result (Click to open full resolution)

And here goes a bonus picture I took from the event:

Picture of the event (Click to open full resolution)

My telescope is the one being observed at the middle.