My Contribution to the Pile of Lunar Eclipse Photos From Last Night
Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted by John Scalzi 36 Comments
This one taken around 11:45pm with my Nikon, and for which I did no prep; this is basically me taking a couple dozen shots freehand and picking the least blurry one. This is the one that turned out the best. It’s not too bad, all things considered. And of course it was beautiful in the sky.
It was in fact a just about perfect night for a lunar eclipse: cold as hell and no wind, so the atmosphere was not jumping all around the place, and cloudless so there was no chance the eclipse would be obscured. Athena and I watched it outside for a few minutes and then went back into the house before frostbite set in. It was worth it.
Did you see the eclipse where you were?
No, I was sleeping.
;)
Nice picture, really nice.
Stood outside in balmy Wisconsin and watched it for an hour or so, although I did take a couple breaks to scoot back inside to warm up the toes. Sky was clear as crystal and with the snow cover from Friday night deep on the ground, the reflections and shadows were amazing to see. I took a couple of pictures, but nothing worth keeping
What lens did you use?
My 28 – 300mm zoom, zoomed all the way in.
Nice pic – combining all the colours very neatly :) . Too much cloud where I am, but I have seen red moons before.
No, it clouded over.
Regretfully I did not get to see the eclipse. I fell asleep around 11pm because a) I was tired and b) I had to teach this morning.
Before anyone gets an inclining of being impressed, I teach water aerobics. While I can tell you all kinds of things about principles of the water, I have yet to write the book in my head.
I woke up at 11:41 and went out and saw the nice pink moon. I snapped some iPhone pictures of it, but they came out fuzzy. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it, but I recently bought a cell-phone accessory-bracket-gadget that holds a cell phone in place so that its camera lens is at the focal point of an eyepiece of a telescope, spotting scope, microscope etc. — I should have tried a shot or two with that and my scope. The bracket gadget works reasonably well with my spotting scope for taking photos of distant birds (birding is one of my hobbies). To shutter the photo without touching/jarring the camera/scope, I use an built-in app on my Apple watch which uses the Bluetooth connection to shutter the iPhone camera.
London, UK area – woke up around 5AM, went into the living room to look for the moon. Saw cloud, went back to bed.
Very briefly–the clouds cleared out for a few minutes so I could see it at full strength, but mostly it was clouded over and I had to watch the livestream on slooh.com.
It was dumping rain here. But I will never complain about rain here in Northern California. We need all we can get.
The eclipse was already in progress by the time it cleared the mountain to the east of us, so we saw it after totality started. Shortly thereafter, it started coming out from the Earth’s shadow, but we did watch for a while. It might have been a visual artifact, but did anyone see a red flash on the terminator line shortly after totality ended?
Nice one, John. I had a decent imaging session in SE Texas. Selected shots are here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sclayworth/albums/72157675802841867
We just happened to be driving back from Wisconsin to Maryland and pulled into the driveway as the eclipse was starting. It was WINDY in Maryland so we did a lot of stand outside, look up, run back inside until it finally was a full on eclipse. Still, really cool to see! That last few solar events have been on cloudy and/or rainy nights so we missed out.
For once the clouds here on the Left Coast decided to allow us to observe a celestial phenomenon, and it was indeed phenomenal.
Stepped out the front door at 5.30 am UK time with The Ruffian and saw it hanging there, all bloody. There was actually a car stopped on the main road as the driver stared up at it in awe! Basically I kept an eye on the eclipse all through our morning walk (about 1hr 30 mins) until the dog and I could see our moon shadows again.
I didn’t expect to see it, being in Seattle and the rainy season and all, but the night was clear (and cold!) and the view from my backyard was perfect. I kept stepping outside to look, then went back inside to warm up, for about an hour or so. The time of the eclipse where we were, roughly 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., was perfect for us. Love your picture. Didn’t bother taking a fuzzy pic with my phone.
It was overcast here in Portland, Oregon, which made the initial viewing hazing and diffuse at best, even through a pair of binoculars. Shortly after it reached full eclipse, the clouds covered up the view completely. I’ve enjoyed seeing others’ photos, however, and caught some live viewing via video last night. Astronomy is cool! I find it hard to believe that I was the only person outside on my street last night, though I did catch my next-door neighbor as she arrived back home after dinner and offered her a peek through the binoculars.
I live in West Central Indiana and I went out at around 11:30 with my brother. We watched for about 5 minutes and then hurried back inside because IT WAS 6 FRICKIN’ DEGREES OUT THERE! That’s too cold to spend time outside staring at the sky like a mooncalf.
Cold and rainy here in Oregon. You got some great shots there. Thanks!
Steve C, great shots, thanks for sharing!
i noticed the color of the moon in some parts in your photo is the same as the color of the image when the china probe landed…where some people said the earthy brown color meant the china probe pic was fake….since it didn’t appear like the Apollo images…but then in later images the china pics were more of the white and light gray color…so it seems the probe took a pic when this blood moon phase was beginning for that part of the moon but don’t quote me here…hah…great pic mr scalzi…big congrats.
I was working outside last night (CBS Television city in LA), and we had a stellar view. It was absolutely gorgeous in person!
I live in the rain shadow of the Pennines in the UK, as it is so often it was cloudy or cloudy and raining.
Yup, it was great! Stepped out my front door about 8:15 (Pacific) and marveled that the eclipse darkens the moon in a different direction from the usual wax and wane.
Popped back out for totality and then re-emergence, but it was too cold to just stand outside forever. Very lucky to have no cloud cover this time of year.
Central NC. Watched off and on from the beginning (10:30) until the shadow was about halfway gone (1:15 a.m.). At one point when it was full red, I walked outside and when I looked up and the sky was brilliant with stars with this planet like object among them, I felt like I was in another galaxy.
There was a break in the clouds just long enough to see quite a bit of the whole process, and then the show closed down and it rained like crazy.
The rain in San Francisco had stopped in advance, then patchy clouds spent the next few hours playing hide-and-seek with the moon. Got to see all the important bits at least briefly. Gorgeous. Stood out on the front steps for a few minutes watching at full eclipse – no one else out to look, just me and the moon.
We got a brief break in the Northern California rainstorm to see the moon at about the stage it was in for your picture, but nowhere near as clearly, watched it go dark and get immediately obscured by clouds. By the middle of totality, it was pouring rain again. As SSteve said, we’ll take the rain.
Sending out dinner group announcement tonight and noticed there’d been a lunar eclipse just about a year ago.
I had set a reminder on my computer, then failed to see it. Then my son calls from Texas (I’m in NM) and said “Mom! Are you out looking at the moon?” So I went out and about then the clouds parted and there it was. Perfect view! So glad someone reminded me!
I stepped outside at 12:45 am (east coast time) to see if it was visible- it was! My view was just like your best photo- deep red with the sliver of brightness at the top edge. Quite the celestial event!
It was overcast in my neck of the woods. Thin enough I could see the moon looked different than usual, but too thick to see anything clearly. I envy your skies!
Also, it was expletively cold, so not worth waking up the family for a blurry sliver.
Pacific coast here, so I let my 5yo stay up till 8:30 to watch the beginnings. Then, I went outside around 9 and got to see the Orion Nebula for the first time through binoculars. Awesome stargazing evening, even in a city!
FYI, there was a meteoroid impact during the eclipse. It probably won’t show in most pics, but it would be on the far edge of the moon around 6-7 o’clock on your photo. Here is a good video discussing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smp7TqccTpY
Nope, solid overcast here in northern New Mexico. Wanted to see it, checked but no dice.
By that I mean when I checked it was overcast. Just my luck that it might have cleared just at the right time, you know, after I’d gone back to bed….. In any case rats.