A rare event

Last night was a very rare event: a significant astronomical event, visible from the UK, and I wasn't clouded out.

After a very cloudy afternoon it cleared up really well in the evening so everything was on for a view of the partial lunar eclipse. Given that there was no way I'd be able to see the rising full Moon from my own garden I walked to the east side of the village to get a view out over Billingborough Fen. When I got there I had a perfect view of the eclipse around maximum phase:

I don't really have anything by way of imaging equipment but I did attempt a couple of shots using a little digital camera that I've recently acquired. Unsurprisingly most of the shots didn't come out at all well (hand held, full optical and digital zoom — it was never really going to work was it?) but at least one or two give a hint of what the Moon looked like:


I stayed in my observing location, watching unaided and with a 10x50 binocular while making various notes, right up until I could no longer make out the umbra of the Earth's shadow (around 19:44UT).

Given that I've managed to do hardly any observing this summer (other than solar observing) it was really nice to be out and observing in the dark again.

File Under: Moon, Eclipse, Lunar Eclipse.