Woke about 4:20 am this morning to watch the total lunar eclipse.
The moon was already halfway into earth’s shadow when I began. I experimented with using the web cam to capture the event. I didn’t expect great results, but the webcam turned out to be completely worthless for the purpose I had in mind.
I started observing in the back yard. The back neighbors had a bright halogen yard light, so I moved around the side of the house after totality. Best results in both locations came with the Bushnell 12×50 binoculars mounted on a tripod.
A few minutes before totality I could perceive the moon not as a disc but as a sphere. This must certainly have been by some effect of the lighting because the moon is too distant to be perceived in three dimensions by human vision.
The color during totality was beautiful. Early on I saw red-orange at the 4 o’clock and 10 o’clock edges, with blue-white at the 7 o’clock edge. The center was quite dark, and the edge was indistinct at 1 o’clock. Without the binoculars the color was more striking and seemed to cover the lower half. Over time the colors seemed to shift subtly, with some areas growing dimmer, others growing redder.
Conditions were generally fair. There were few clouds at first, then more as totality approached. There were times when the moon was completely obscured for a minute or more. I thought the clouds would only get worse, so I brought the computer and webcam inside and coiled the extension cord. Then the clouds dissipated and I watch the dark red moon for some thirty minutes or so. Amanda came out and watched for a few minutes as well.
Sigma Aquarii was clearly visible in the binocular field of view above and to the left of the eclipsed moon. It made me wonder how rare it would be to see a planetary conjunction with a full moon.
The lower the moon sank in the sky the more obstructed the view from haze and occasional clouds, so I went back to bed before 6 am.
