Lunar Eclipse 2018


These are my pictures of the event. Unfortunately half the time I did not know what I was doing, half the time I knew that what I am doing is wrong, and half the time I could not even see what I am doing. That gives you one and half of a clueless dork. It was exciting nevertheless and I am happy I could see such a thing. I wanted to witness lunar eclipse ever since I was reading about them in books as a little boy.

I think a few pictures are worth sharing. Here is the first one, taken just after the sky finally cleared and I found the dim moon in the sky. Rest is bellow the fold. The pictures are in chronological order, also the last ones show the Moon emerging from the Earth’s shadow.


©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Comments

  1. Callinectes says

    Lucky. Where I’m am in the UK we had a month of sweltering dry cloudless days and nights, quite uncharacteristic of our usual climate, and mere hours before the eclipse was due the skies suddenly clouded up, rained for five minutes, and then just sat there. They’ve actually locked in the day’s heat along with the sudden humidity, so tonight is not merely disappointing, but also profoundly uncomfortable.

  2. Ice Swimmer says

    Fine captures. The clouds never fully cleared here during the time I was observing.

  3. voyager says

    Those are great photos, Charly. We have heavy cloud cover right now so I’m not sure if I’ll see the blood moon or not. Thanks to you I did get to see the eclipse, though. :D

  4. says

    I woke up earlier than I usually do this morning so decided to go out and have a look. My best shot was a lot worse than these though so I don’t think I’ll share it. If I had been more organised I would have set up the camera properly the night before but that would have probably meant sleeping in until dawn’s coming light drowned out the eclipse.

    Always good though to get to see such an event when the weather gods smile for a moment.

  5. jazzlet says

    Cloud here near Manchester too, so I didn’t see it either, as Callinectes says said it’s unpleasantly humid and hot. I think I may need to start considering taking a holiday elsewhere for something like the perseids as it always seems to be cloudy here whenever I want to look at something interesting like that. Though I have been getting a good view of Mars for the last few weeks, so I suppose that’s something.

    Glad you could see it Charly!

  6. rq says

    The clouds here were patchy enough that some of my friends got good photos but it was overcast at our place. But then, we were too exhausted (husband’s work had a family day that was physically taxing but a lot of fun).

  7. lumipuna says

    I went to swim with a friend around 10 PM (roughly sunset/moonrise time and the beginning of the eclipse in Helsinki). It was magically warm -- frankly I feel I’ve now enjoyed enough of this heatwave, but the weather forecast disagrees on that. This night’s minimum temp was about 21-22 C here, which must be very close to the local record.

    A little later we climbed on a hill and saw there were some thin clouds gathering on the southern horizon, when the sky was otherwise almost cloudless. It was still fairly light by 11 PM and the moon was close to horizon, so you’d need very good weather conditions to see a darkened moon. Eventually around 12.30 we saw a few glimpses of a brightening “crescent” moon as the clouds began parting while the eclipse was ending.

  8. lumipuna says

    And this night’s minimum was 23 C. It’s been windy and largely overcast (which helps during days), but oppressively humid.

  9. StevoR says

    Marvellous photos there, thanks for sharing.

    I saw the eclipse beautifully but my phone camera isn’t good enough to get any decent shots. Took the dog out for a early morning eclipse walk trying to get better viewing spots. I can now state that whilst solar eclipses affect animal behaviour; a lunar one does nothing for a stick-obsessed old kelpie! Don’t think she noticed at all -- except for being up and having a fun walk around at an odd hour. I, OTOH, absolutely loved it. Very lucky to get perfectly clear skies throughout the eclipse,- it was totally overcast and pouring down the following night and cloudy and wet most of the week so, for once, we got astronomically lucky!

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