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Observation by Alex Pratt: Total lunar eclipse

Uploaded by

Alex Pratt

Observer

Alex Pratt

Observed

2019 Jan 21 - 05:17

Uploaded

2019 Jan 21 - 13:11

Objects

Eclipse

Planetarium overlay









Constellation

Gemini

Field centre

RA: 07h53m
Dec: +25°25'
Position angle: +37°32'

Field size

17° × 10°

Equipment
  • Canon EOS 500D DSLR
  • Tamron 70-300mm lens (at 70mm f/4)
  • ISO 800
Exposure

2s

Location

Leeds, West Yorkshire

Target name

Total lunar eclipse

Title

Total lunar eclipse

About this image

I got up at 3am and could see the Full Moon through the blanket of cloud, so I was hopeful of seeing some of the total eclipse. I dozed until 4am then breaks in the cloud allowed me to view its progress through my 7x50 bins.

By 04:30 the sky was clearing from the NW. From around 05:00 until after 06:00 I took numerous shots of the eclipsed Moon using my DSLR and telephoto lens on a static tripod. The attached pic was taken shortly after mid-eclipse, with Castor and Pollux at upper right.

Through the early hours it was fascinating to see the Moon align up with these bright stars in Gem and to see our Full Moon hanging in a field of stars. The  binoculars gave a nice view of the colour changes as the Moon passed through the Earth's shadow. Because it wasn't a central eclipse the N limb was notably bright and this added to the 3-D effect, making our satellite look like a coloured ball floating in space.

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