90 Minutes of Moonlight

I’ve previously achieved breathtaking star trail photographs, and I’ve also captured solar and lunar eclipse photos. But my goal this year is to snag a “moon trail,” in which the moon’s travels through the sky are captured on one single frame of film.

This is difficult. You’re asking a camera to stay focused on a bright object for anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours, and hope that you’re just getting the moonlight without blowing out everything else in the frame.

I had to try it. This is my current white whale. There’s a lunar eclipse coming up in March 2026, and if I don’t get this shot, I won’t see another lunar eclipse in my lifetime. So I have all year to prepare for what I want.

It’s currently the week of the full “Buck Moon,” and I’m down at Albany’s warehouse district. The Pentacon Six TL camera is on the tripod, with the 80mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar lens on the chassis. I’ve attached a cabled shutter release to the camera, and slapped an ND10 filter on the glass.

And I aimed the camera directly at one of my favorite photography targets – the old RCA “His Master’s Voice” Nipper statue. Because, yeah.

Here’s a reference shot of where I am and what I hope to snag.

Not sure how well those clouds will work in this situation, but as you can see, I’m across the street and I hope to get something tasty out of this.

10:30 p.m. A quick reference test shot, maybe five or ten seconds at f/2.8.

Advance the frame.

Now let’s add that ND filter. Make sure all the settings are tight. Shutter cable release attached. F/stop is 2.8. Shutter setting is bulb.

Open the shutter. Now I wait.

And I wait. I watch the moon as it slowly rises in the partly cloudy skies.

And I keep thinking to myself … this is crazy. This won’t work. I’m either going to completely blow out the images in the surrounding area, or the moonlight is too bright, or the nearby street lights will ruin the photo with light pollution.

This is crazy. This can’t work.

And I’ve got 90 minutes to find out if it will.

12:00 midnight. The moon has quietly drifted behind a cloud. I carefully release the locked shutter. I hear the mirror slap inside. Advance the frame.

And by then, the moon has now floated over Nipper’s head.

Now for the development process.

After “burning off” the remainder of the film (look, I’ve got eight shots to waste, don’t hassle me on it), I drop the roll off at McGreevy Pro Lab (my pro lab of choice). They develop once a week – on Wednesdays. So by Thursday morning, I should know if I’ve got a successful shot or not.

Thursday morning. Bright and early. I stop by McGreevy Pro Lab. And they show me the developed film.

Here’s the reference shot.

Okay. Nice moody shot. Could have done without the CME factory sign in the photo, but hey, stuff happens.

All right. Let’s see what the moon trail photo looks like, and …

Wait. That’s the moon trail, for sure. And that’s Nipper, for sure. And a wee fragment of the CME sign.

Another way to confirm. I took a photo of the negative, and ran it through a filter on the SnapSeed program on my phone. Just to see what I might have here.

Um … could all of you please just give me a moment here? Just a teensy-weensy little moment. I need to take some time to understand what happened here.

Thanks. I’ll be back in a second.

HOLY FREAKING TAP-DANCING JESUS AND CARTWHEELING MARY MAGDALENE, THIS ACTUALLY WORKED!!!!! I’ve got 90 minutes of a moon trail AND Nipper AND the factory sign!!

Okay. Deep breath. All I have here is a negative. I need McGreevy Pro Lab to give both the reference frame and the moon trail frame a high-resolution scan-job. I need digital images of these two frames.

On Friday, McGreevy Pro Lab provided me with the scans.

I went home … put the two images in my copy of PhotoShop … adjusted this highlight … adjusted that range … a little burn here, a little dodge there … combined the two images … and … and …

Oh my God.

I did it.

I did it!

That’s a 90-minute moon trail!!

And it lines up perfectly with my reference shot!!

SHORT PILE!!

Holy crap SHORT PILE FOR ANYTHING RIGHT NOW!!

Now I know I can do better with this …

But I want to see how this experiment looks to the general public.

Boy oh boy … I think I’ve got a freakin’ winner here!!