© Dan Zafra (Seize the Atlas) Skilled panorama and commute photographer Dan Zafra, identified for his site Seize the Atlas, traveled from his house in Nevada to the wilds of Alaska remaining week to seize the entire lunar eclipse towards a lovely backdrop of the Northern lighting fixtures. When he learned that there was once going to be a chance to look the aurora the similar evening as the entire lunar eclipse, often referred to as the Blood Moon, Zafra went for it. His boldness paid off as he was once handled to transparent skies and wonderful, colourful inexperienced Northern lighting fixtures. “I had initially deliberate this commute to Alaska across the spring equinox, a length steadily related to heightened sun job,” Zafra tells PetaPixel. “Generally, I time table my journeys throughout a New Moon for optimum darkish skies, however I made an exception this time. The uncommon alternative to witness a complete lunar eclipse along the aurora was once too excellent to go.” To seize the unbelievable tournament, Zafra went to Alaska armed with 3 cameras: one on a celeb tracker with a 400mm lens to seize close-up photographs of the Moon throughout the eclipse, some other to seize wide-angle photographs (20mm), and a 3rd devoted to timelapse. Zafra says his aurora exposures have been 20 seconds at f/5.6 and ISO 10,000, whilst his celebrity photographs have been 4 seconds (f/5.6, ISO 6,400). In the end, the Moon was once shot at one-fifth of a 2d at f/5.6 and ISO 6,400. 
© Dan Zafra (Seize the Atlas) “My workflow started with putting in the timelapse to run ceaselessly right through the development. I simplest needed to regulate it as soon as when the aurora climbed a lot upper within the sky than anticipated. Subsequent, I arrange my star-tracked telephoto lens for detailed close-ups. I used the Benro Polaris celebrity tracker, which allowed me to automate bracketed exposures. In the end, I situated a 3rd digicam with a wide-angle lens to seize panorama photographs of the development,” the photographer explains.
“It was once a little hectic managing more than one setups,” Zafra admits. “However with totality lasting about an hour, I had sufficient time to seize the whole lot and nonetheless absolutely enjoy the instant.” Zafra is not any stranger to unbelievable occasions — he has observed many wonderful auroras and a few overall lunar eclipses earlier than — however he was once nonetheless enthralled by way of seeing each without delay. “I by no means anticipated the interplay between the [aurora and eclipse] to be so enthralling,” Zafra says. “Status on a frozen lake, I watched because the panorama slowly dimmed whilst the Moon slipped into Earth’s shadow. On the similar time, the aurora intensified, filling the sky with colourful waves of sunshine.” “After totality ended, it felt like any person had grew to become the lighting fixtures again on—the panorama brightened once more, and the Moon’s glow returned. It was once surreal, magical, and in contrast to anything else I had ever skilled.” As soon as Zafra returned house, he began processing all his photographs. For the close-up photographs, he used PixInsight to take away the celebrities from the background of the aurora symbol, mixed them again in from a separate shot, after which merged the correctly uncovered Moon into the general body. “Given the extraordinary distinction in brightness between the Moon and aurora, bracketing was once very important,” he says. “Shooting the whole lot in one shot was once unimaginable.”
For his wide-angle photographs, the processing workflow was once a lot more easy. He mixed a unmarried publicity for the panorama and aurora with a shorter publicity to correctly disclose the scene. As for the timelapse observed above, he edited the photographs as same old after which compiled the series with LRTimelapse. 
© Dan Zafra (Seize the Atlas) “Even if I generally shoot wide-angle panorama astrophotography, my favourite shot from this tournament is the close-up of the eclipsed Moon with the aurora,” Zafra says, including that he believes it’s a novel and authentic viewpoint. “I’ve observed a couple of different photographs of this tournament from northern Canada and Alaska, I haven’t come throughout any detailed close-ups that seize each the eclipse and aurora in combination. That makes this symbol much more particular to me.” Extra of Dan Zafra’s images is to be had on Seize the Atlas‘ site, Fb, and Instagram. Symbol credit: All footage by way of Dan Zafra
