Tonight, Australians will be able to look to the sky and see a total lunar eclipse — a term used to describe when the Moon is completely encompassed by the Earth's shadow.
Besides being an event in itself, a lunar eclipse presents a fruitful opportunity for photographers to capture beautiful lunar images.
But you don't have to leave it to the professionals. Here are some tips on how to get the best eclipse snap on your phone.
How do you take a photo of a total lunar eclipse with a phone?
It is possible to take stunning photos of a lunar eclipse with a phone, but without a telescope it will look quite small.
Those beautiful, crisp close-up photos of blood-red lunar eclipses are almost always taken with a telescope or telephoto lens, according to astrophotographer Phil Hart.
"Everything where the Moon is basically the single subject in the frame … will be through either very long telephoto lenses or generally telescopes," Mr Hart tells ABC News.
Astrophotographer Joel Stafford is planning his eclipse photo set up on an iPhone 13 Pro.
He says lunar eclipse photography is in reach, but can be difficult.
"You definitely can take a nice photo with a phone, but with a lunar eclipse it's tricky, because as the Moon turns that shade of red, it gets darker," he says.
"So you need a camera app on your phone that allows the phone camera to do longer exposures."
Those with phones at the ready take a beat though – Mr Stafford will also be using a telescope in partnership with his phone to get a perfect close-up shot.
"I've got a special phone mount that clicks onto the eyepiece so I can manoeuvre my phone over the eyepiece to shoot through the telescope that way," Mr Stafford explains.
"Then I'll focus it nice and sharply on the Moon and then take photos through the camera app."
Tips and tricks to getting the best lunar eclipse shot
Have a point of comparison
For those only armed with a phone, having a point of comparison in your shot will provide great results, according to Mr Stafford.
"You're not going to get a zoomed-in shot with your phone unless you have a massive zoom," he says.
"Doing a wide-angled shot with something like your house in the shot and then the Moon above your house, you'll get a nice shot doing it that way."
Time lapse
Don't feel like taking shots every 10 seconds for 86 minutes straight? Let your phone or camera do the work for you with a time lapse.
"Set up a time lapse taking multiple images over a period of time," Mr Hart says.
"That can be done with a phone, DSLR and even compact cameras that people might have."
While most Androids and iPhones will have time lapse capability built in, there are downloadable third-party apps that will make your phone time lapse-capable.
Stack your shots
Once you have a bunch of shots from a time lapse (or from just getting snap-happy), you can stack multiple shots on top of each other in editing software to create a composite shot.
As the eclipse is happening at moonrise at select areas of Australia, this poses a rare opportunity to create a very unique photo.
"As the Moon rises and the eclipse happens you have this shadow taking a larger and larger chunk of the Moon, so you can create these composite images quite easily," Mr Hart says.
"It could be a photo every five minutes that are just exposed for the Moon itself, capture those for an hour or so and you can create this stack where you can see the changing eclipse shadow."
Settings at the ready
Total lunar eclipses bathe the Moon in a stunning red hue due to the light from the Sun hitting the Earth's atmosphere.
Depending on what kind of equipment you're using, there is a small change to make the most of that unmissable colour — selecting the daylight setting.
"Phones, compact cameras and DSLRs have a white balance setting," Mr Hart says.
"If you leave it on auto white balance then the camera is effectively skewing the colours to compensate for what it thinks the illumination of the scene. Whereas, if you leave it on the daylight setting, that will record the colours in a true and accurate sense."
Above all, just get involved
No matter if you've got a professional photography rig or you're just snapping a couple of pics on your phone, both Mr Hart and Mr Stafford say just viewing a real-life lunar eclipse can be awe-inspiring.
"It's a really good event to see visually, even if you don't have a camera. There's a slow progression over several hours. So by all means have a crack taking a photo, but also just make sure you observe it," Mr Hart says.
"I can remember as a very young boy watching a lunar eclipse from outside my home where I grew up, so it might be the event that captures someone's imagination and gets them started on astronomy as a hobby."
Mr Stafford adds: "Everyone should always have a go. Because you don't have to go anywhere special to see it, it's something that everyone should try and witness."
