Monday, September 28, 2015

Lunar eclipse from York County, VA - despite the clouds!

What an incredible view of the lunar eclipse last night! Despite persistent cloud cover, there were enough gaps to catch the best moments here in York County, Virginia. Since the southerly view at my house is blocked by trees, I ended up wheeling my telescope to a cul-de-sac nearby and found the perfect vantage point. Neighbors were out enjoying the view as well, enhancing the feeling that something big was happening. I intermittently took about 5GB of photos from the beginning of totality until the end of the eclipse...and oh my, it was dark during totality! I was surprised by the exposure length required. The picture above is a first cut at processing one of the better images of the night, taken about 10:45 p.m. EDT during mid-totality. I will post more refined images in the coming days, possibly a mosaic of the latter half of the eclipse.

Technical details:
Explore Scientific ED127mm Apochromatic Refractor, Canon 550D DSLR, Exposure: 2 sec @ ISO800, time: 11:03 p.m. EDT.