Total Eclipse of the Moon
Last night (December 20, 2010 in Colorado), there was a total eclipse of the moon. I was watching the weather with trepidation - it had been mostly cloudy all day - and as night fell, I was pretty pessimistic about the chances for seeing anything. But I dutifully put the telescope outside to cool, and got the camera equipment ready, just in case things cleared up: Wonder of wonders, the sky cleared up during the eclipse. There were clouds coming and going all evening, but nothing that diminished the enjoyment of the event. Here is a shot of the fully eclipsed moon north of Orion, with Taurus and the Pleiades in the shot (and some tree branches in the foreground). A cloud, illuminated by Fort Collins city lights, drifts in front of Orion. This was taken with at 18mm focal length on a Canon EOS 40D (1.6x crop factor): Switching lenses, here is a shot at 100mm focal length on the same camera: But the real exciting shots were taken through the telescope a Meade LX90-ACF
