The Lunar Eclipse of March 2026, with NGC 3423

This is the 11th total lunar eclipse I have shot. This time the skies at home looked very iffy but the southwest looked good. We have a Bonanza and my husband knew of a small, dark airport that looked perfect, so we headed there and camped under the plane. I have been disappointed with the quality I could get without tracking, with the high ISO needed for such a dim subject with the narrow aperture of a telephoto lens. I acquired a good tracker several years ago and found a solid way to mount the camera and lens. Then I hoped to get a good star field, and am pleased with the result. It was an effort, but worth it!

Moon: Canon R5, RF 100-500 lens + 2X teleconverter, SkyWatcher EQM 35 Pro tracker.
Stars: Askar FRA400 refractor and ASI2600MC Pro camera, same tracker.

Eclipse image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop, with minimal sharpening and tonal corrections. Star background shot from home, March 12, when the moon had moved away from that part of the sky. About 150 frames of 60 sec each, processed in PixInsight and adjusted to scale with the moon, using Stellarium and the few stars captured in the lunar frame. The galaxy is NGC 3423.