Beautiful Eclipse!

The full lunar eclipse last night was a beauty! Unfortunately, my pictures are not very good. I had hoped to set up my telescope to photograph it, but my yard is still covered in ice. Enough of my whining. I'm lucky that I had a clear sky and do have some photos to remind me of this spectacular eclipse.

Even at this point in the eclipse, the moon shown brightly on the snow. I didn't need a flashlight to see my yard, but most of the stars in the sky were already invisible in the bright glow.

As the earth's shadow almost covered the moon, the sky filled with stars! At this point, it looked as though the moon might remain gray to grayish brown.

Just as suddenly as the sky filled with stars, the moon transformed from her normal gray attire to her stunning copper finery.

Totality ends as a sliver of light creeps across her edge.

The stars hide again behind the moonlight. The copper has faded. Soon the shadow will be gone completely leaving the well named Snow Moon reigning over the night sky. I hope you were able to enjoy this eclipse, too.

Would you like to see some lovely photos of the moon? Visit
Renie's "Shooting the Moon! In her shots, a tree frames the moon making for the most beautiful effects!

The Short Lunar Eclipse

On Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 4:40 AMI grabbed my binoculars, camera, and telescope accessories case and headed out the door. The full moon illuminated the way to my chair, table and telescope that had been set up in the front yard the night before. Bad idea. The telescope had fallen prey to the night dew. Nice if one likes that foggy look to everything. No problem, my binoculars and camera were fine.

I live in the New Hampshire. I knew that the moon would set before reaching totality, but I thought I would see a bit more than half the moon eclipsed before it sank out of view. I forgot to figure in the geography of my western horizon - a tall pine-tree-studded hillside. My viewing can be summed up with this little list:

Totality occurred at 5:52 AM,
The moon set below a clear NH horizon at 6:09 AM
The moon set below my tree-lined hilltop horizon at 5:25 AM

The eclipse was beautiful, although brief.

Fortunately, there will be another total lunar eclipse on February 20, 2008. I have already checked. My western horizon will not be a problem. As long as the Nor'easters stay away, I just might see the entire eclipse and end up with a full set of eclipse photos.

Here's to clear skies and low horizons!