Astroblog: Peeking at a Short Lunar Eclipse Through the Cloud.

Saturday, April 04, 2015

Peeking at a Short Lunar Eclipse Through the Cloud.


Moon at 20:35 ACDST, as seen from Largs North, Adelaide. A faint penumbral darkening can be seen at the left.	20:41 ACDST, the clouds are moving in.

21:46 A break in the clouds reveals a substantially eclipsed Moon	21:47, a different exposure to reveal clouds and earthglow.

21:59 The shadow advances	22:23 A faint post eclipse Moon seen through the clouds.

All afternoon the sky was a brilliant blue, the warm sunshine moderated by a chilly breeze. Shortly after sunset a pack of clouds moved over, but the moved on and I set up my 4" Newtonian ready for the night.

I got a test shot of the the penumbral part of the eclipse before the main partial phase started under clear skies.

And then the cloud rolled in.

I didn't give up but waited patiently for the clouds to clear. It didn't. There were gaps in the cloud, which seemed to conscientiously avoid the Moon, and I got a couple of shots off. I had a fleeting glimpse of totality (too quick to image) and then the gaps disappeared. Around 22:30 I gave up.

One thing I can say is that Fred Espenak's prediction of 5 minutes totality looked to be correct, from the brief flashes I saw.

As I write NOW there are larger gaps, and I can see the shadow slipping off the Moon, but I have stowed the telescope and camera away, I'm about to hit bed so I can be up early for the Kids Easter egg hunt.

Well, that's the last total eclipse from Australia until January 2018. Even though plagued by clouds, I'm glad I got to see it.

Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, Moon, telescope

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:52 pm

Comments:

Nice- we had incessant clouds and rain here on the Pacific !

# posted by

JupiterIsBig : 9:38 pm

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