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Total Lunar Eclipse

Posted: 31 January 2018

Tuesday evening, 30 January 2018, was mostly cloudy. The Moon rose over the hill to the east 12 hours before Mid-Eclipse of Wednesday morning's Total Lunar Eclipse. I took these photos using a Nikon D7200 DSLR + Tamron 150-600mm lens:

f/6.3, 1/640sec, ISO 200, White Balance Auto, FL 600mm
photo

f/6.3, 1/30sec, ISO 200, White Balance Auto, FL 190mm
photo


Equipment Used:
12x50 binoculars

Camera:
D7200 DSLR

I did not open the observatory for the Total Lunar Eclipse, which occurred with the Moon near perigee. The sky was mostly clear Wednesday morning, 31 January. The only clouds that were visible were along the western horizon.

0415 MST: I set up the Nikon D7200 DSLR + Tamron 150-600mm lens on the house front patio:

photo

This location provided a clear view of the western horizon as the Moon would set during the eclipse.

Here are times of the major events for the Lunar Eclipse at my location:

    0448 MST: Partial Eclipse began
    0551 MST: Total Eclipse began
    0630 MST: Mid-Eclipse
    0708 MST: Total Eclipse ended
    0719 MST: Sunrise
    0723 MST: Moonset

I took this sequence of images using a focal length of 600mm beginning at 0430 MST (left) through 0630 MST (mid-eclipse, right):

photo
Click or tap on image for larger version

This photo, focal length 600mm, was taken at mid-eclipse:

photo

Using 12x50 binoculars I watched the eclipse. As the Moon was darkened, more and more stars began appearing, making for a pretty view of the eclipsed moon. This photo, focal length 150mm, taken at mid-eclipse shows the Moon and stars:

photo

0649 MST: this was the last photo of the eclipsed Moon that I was able to take:

photo

0704 MST: with the sky getting brighter and the eclipsed Moon getting lower (and going behind some clouds), the Total Lunar Eclipse observing ended for me.


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Copyright ©2018 Michael L. Weasner / mweasner@me.com
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