Local photographers capture eclipse

MAT-SU — Many Alaskans trained their eyes on the heavens Monday night to see the first total lunar eclipse since February 2008.

Butte astrophotographer Jim Egger said lunar eclipses — when the sun, Earth and moon are aligned nearly exactly and the moon passes behind the Earth and through its shadow — are more common than solar eclipses.

Egger used a digital camera connected to a telescope to capture a series of images of the moon at various points as it passed through the earth’s shadow.

“It was pretty neat,” Egger said. “Half the world was able to see it.”

And he said Alaska had prime seats to the show — a clear night and a good position on the globe to watch as the moon moved into the Earth’s penumbral shadow.

The next lunar eclipse will occur June 15, 2011, but it won’t be visible in North America, according to NASA’s website.

What makes this eclipse extra special, Eggers said, is that it happened simultaneously with winter solstice.

“The next event like that won’t occur for more than 300 years,” he said.

2009 Colony High School graduate David Gehring’s composite image of a series of eclipse shots was featured on Channel 2 this week.

The 19-year-old said he set up his camera on a tripod and took about 40 photos in two hours. He combined the best images from different intervals of the moon’s trip through the Earth’s shadow and put them on one black background.

“This is the first time I really put any great effort into it,” Gehring said.

He said he’s studying small business administration at Mat-Su College because he eventually wants to open his own photo business.

“I’m a pretty big hobbyist in photography,” he said.

Already his hobby stands to earn him a bit of cash.

A person from Valdez saw Gehring’s image on the Frontiersman’s Facebook fan page and asked to buy a print of it, he said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268