- Fortunately, there is no special camera required to take a photograph of the moon during a lunar eclipse. A better camera will typically yield a better photograph, but film and digital cameras will work equally well, and you do not need any special equipment beyond just the camera to get a picture of a lunar eclipse.
- If you want to have a close up of the moon during a lunar eclipse, a telephoto lens will be required. The moon is very far away, after all, and will look quite small without some substantial zoom. A 500 mm lens, for instance, will yield a moon that is 4.6 millimeters in diameter. If you really want to fill the frame, however, a 1000 mm focal length will do the trick, by making the moon 9.2 millimeters in diameter. Of course, you will need something more than a point-and-shoot camera to attach a lens to.
- You can also try a number of different techniques during a lunar eclipse to give you more unique pictures of the event. A long exposure time, such as an hour, will, if timed properly, show the moon transitioning from bright, to eclipsed and back to bright again. Similarly, taking multiple exposures from the same position will show many moons, in the different stages of eclipse, across the night sky.
- One more consideration that needs to be taken in to account when photographing the moon during an eclipse is the brightness. Since in a total eclipse the moon is not exposed to any direct sunlight, it loses a lot of its brightness. If it is only a partial eclipse, however, there will be some direct sunlight on the moon, and you will need to adjust the settings on your camera to account for this. This is one reason why you should use a tripod when photographing the moon during an eclipse, so that you can use longer exposure times to compensate for the darker moon.
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