Partial Lunar Eclipse

[mike a feist]

Perfect Observing! The sky was clear throughout with just a bit of thin, stringy cirrus. Reached Foredown Ridge just before sunset. Once the very red Sun had gone down, turned my attention to the opposite direction and very soon picked out a pale pink Moon rising in the horizon murk over Brighton. Initially it was difficult to tell which was the eclipsed portion of the moon and which was cloud but very soon it was obvious. Used Olivon 12-36x50 on lightweight tripod and Canon SX50HS camera. The camera was rested on the top of the scope from time to time to take a number of photographs. The first view of the Moon was at about 2107 BST and by about 2226 BST maximum eclipse was reached, and being a bit chilled by then I set off home to warm up and was able to continuing observing from the street, until near the end the Moon had risen sufficiently for me to be able to follow the tail end from the comfort of my back garden using the 8x36 handheld Monarch binoculars. The final view was at about 2407 (after midnight) BST. The one surprise for me was that near maximum, the dark part of the Moon was quite red. I did not expect this during a non-total eclipse. Wonderful!!!! Regards maf

[nigeljoslin]

Damn it! I've only just heard about this one. And the sky was clear, last night!

Sounds good from your description.

[RMSteele]

Hello Mike, Glad you had a good view. I managed to catch the later part of the eclipse around 23.30 BST, when the cloud had dispersed and the Moon had risen higher in the south. The obscured segment looked surprisingly dark, and as you remark, I also for a moment took it to be an intrusion of cloud. It looked like a great big black eye. Overall the Moon was a warm colour and the eclipsed part, a very deep dark grey, perhaps with a value of 1 on the Danjon scale at the lunar limb. In my 15x63 bins the eclipsed segment looked smaller and curiously more condensed, almost completely obscuring the limb. This was the oddest lunar eclipse I have seen. I wonder if any Apollo astronauts saw it.

Kind thoughts Bob

[Cliff]

Dear Anybody EXCEPT Mike (just joking of course)
After the 1999 Total Solar Eclipse , great family holiday in Cornwall but eclipse clouded out !
I vowed not to observe eclipses. Not strictly sticking to that , but I close one eye at eclipse maximums if I remember.
I half heartedly considered photographing yesterday's partial Moom (warm Summer!) but late afternoon cloud put me off. evening TV news suggested the partial eclipse visible fro 9:00 to midnight. At 9 ish NO Moon visible.Greater Manchester tall buildings NO help!
10:30 NO sign of Moon but at that moment TV announced maximum partial at 10:31.
10:40 I glimpsed the Moon through our front window - in a gap between buildings. Seeing a "double" eclipse - NOT drunk but awkward angle through double glazing. I then viewd the eclipsed Moon from the garden and sketched in my old observing note book.
This morning 17th July, I glamorised my sketch trying not to compromise accuracy (nor inaccuracy) Then photographed the finalised effort now attached.
Best wishes from Cliff

[David Frydman]

Well done all.

Nice drawing Cliff.

For me, the trees and buildings almost completely obscured the moon.
For the same reason I have not seen Saturn this year and Jupiter maybe three times through a gap between buildings.

I did see the ISS.

Regards,
David

[JohnM]

I saw it from my upstairs window from Carshalton. I got some images with a 300mm lens on a Canon 70D but they are not very good due to camera vibration and the contrast between the light and dark part of the moon exceeding the 14 bit CCD dynamic range.

I could have probably cut down on the vibration by using mirror lock up but that prevents the use of the 'touch screen' shutter. The touch screen shutter has the gread advantage that it tries to auto focus and auto expose on the point you touch or at least nearby if the image was well out of focus to start with.

Image is more artistic than scientific !

[jeff.stevens]

Lovely observations. Very nice sketch, Cliff.

I had all of two minutes to observe during a break in the cloud cover. Very rewarding to see though, nonetheless.

Best wishes,

Jeff.

[mike a feist]

I really liked your sketch Cliff. And although John considers his posted photograph "more artistic that scientific" there is nothing wrong with that...most of the photographs that I took bear a good resemblance to John's, and I am very pleased with mine! I spent £7 in Boots printing mine out. regards maf

[Cliff]

DavidF, Jeff & Mike (of course!)
Thanks for your comments - I'm pleased you all enjoyed the eclipse - let's say I'm partial to a partial ! Although rather like Bob I found it a weird experience, but not nastily weird like 1999 Cornwall.
I too liked JohnM's photo. And I'm very pleased you got some nice photos Mike.
Best wishes from Cliff