After a cloudy day and night on Friday, 25 June, I anxiously awaited the early morning hours on Saturday, 26 June.  Would the clouds be gone in time to view the Partial Lunar Eclipse?  Fortunately, the sky was partially free of clouds by 0230 MST.  As I walked down the pathway to the observatory, a large animal, possibly a deer, disappeared behind some small trees.  I haven’t seen deer here since 2005.  I opened the observatory at 0247 MST, 78°F (max had been 115°F).  The photo above shows that I set up my ETX-90RA outside the POD.  The ETX would be used for lunar photography with the D70 DSLR at the ETX prime focus.  At 0300 MST, viewed the moon in the 8” with the 26mm eyepiece (77X) + moon filter, and also in the ETX with a 26mm eyepiece (48X).

At 0315 MST, I captured this image of the eclipse, already in progress, “hat trick”, ISO 200.  It shows some umbra shadow starting to appear:

Unfortunately, the clouds started moving back in and covered the moon at times.  So I took photos whenever I could.  At 0341 MST, the shadow was very evident and very dark.  This would have made a great total eclipse.  Captured this image at 0350 MST:

At 0356 MST, viewed the moon in the 8” with the 5.5mm (364X) eyepiece.  Then used the 15mm (133X) eyepiece, which provided a very nice view of the umbra’s edge.  However, the moon was getting very low in the sky and some small trees began to block the view.  At 0400 MST, morning twilight was just beginning; the sky in the northeast was getting brighter.  Captured this image at 0408 MST (30 minutes before maximum eclipse):

At 0434 MST, saw the International Space Station begin its pass over Cassiopeia Observatory.  This was a bright pass.  Max altitude in the sky at my location was at 0438 MST, the same time as maximum lunar eclipse!

This image was at max eclipse:

The moon was very low in the sky now so was showing some color from atmospheric refraction.  While imaging the moon, I was also observing the ISS pass and watched until it disappeared behind a distant hill at 0441 MST.

At 0445 MST, took this photograph of the eclipsed moon with the D70 using the 70-300mm lens (at 300mm focal length), 1/160sec, ISO 200:

At 0452 MST, took a quick look at Jupiter in the 8” with the 26mm eyepiece.  The four Galilean Moons were visible.  Still no South Equatorial Belt though.

Closed the observatory at 0500 MST, 75°F.  There were no Kissing Bugs seen during this morning’s session in the observatory.  Either they got the hint from my last spraying, or they were asleep.

At 0507 MST, as I walked up the pathway from the observatory, I took this photograph of the setting, still partially eclipsed, moon:

Not only is the Earth’s shadow visible on the moon, it is also visible in our sky, cutting horizontally across the middle of the photograph.