Because eclipses of the Moon are so much more relaxing than those of the Sun, it can be fun to set up your camera and photograph the progress of one. The first thing to recall about night photography involving the sky is: never ever use a flash. If you are trying to photograph the Moon, which averages 240,000 miles distance, it is useless to expect that a small flash attached to a point-and-shoot camera would light up an object so far away. That said, I proudly present a picture (overleaf) that I took of a full Moon taken with a flash, which did not light up the Moon but did fill in the earthly foreground.

The other thing to remember is that eye protection is unnecessary for lunar eclipses. They are perfectly safe to watch and enjoy. The full moon is dazzlingly bright through a telescope, but nowhere near bright enough to damage your eyes. I have taken good pictures of an eclipse just by holding a camera next to the eyepiece of a telescope – a low-power eyepiece, preferably – and snapping some shots.

Using point-and-shoot cameras

The cheapest camera that you can buy these days is a point-and-shoot camera. These little wonders are actually pretty sophisticated. All but the cheapest have built-in light meters that set the exposure automatically.