Lunar Eclipse

The Lunar eclipse of 28th July 2018 (pictured above at 5.37 am) was cut short for me by high cloud rolling in from the western horizon. I managed only a few images before losing sight of the Moon.

I had been preparing to go walking the local streets to get a good view as the Moon sank to the horizon but as it dipped to the trees that cloud seemed to rise from the horizon and that was the end of it for me, just a few minutes into totality. In retrospect, I should have been more adventurous, as their were some cloud gaps and I just might have got more images.

5.33 am: Wide-field view of the 28th July 2018 total lunar eclipse, with Mars in attendance.

5.37 am :  I had to keep moving the tripod to see the eclipsed Moon.

And the rest, as astronomers say, is  history  cloudy:

5.58 am: The clouds rolled in, as they usually do when an eclipse is happening! That’s a street light on the left (not the Moon).

5.59 am: The clouds were rising as the Moon was setting and the first aircraft was heading into Sydney’s Kingsford-Smith Airport, just before 6 am.

My images were taken between 5.35 am and 6.00 am and for the record, this is a timetable of the eclipse and twilight events:

TIME	EVENT	ASPECT	ALTITUDE
3.13 am	Penumbral eclipse begins	West	43°
4.24 am	Umbral eclipse begins	West	29°
5.26 am	Astronomical dawn (Sun 18º below horizon)	~	~
5.30 am	Total eclipse begins	WSW	16°
5.56 am	Nautical dawn (Sun 12º below horizon)	~	~
6.21 am	Mid eclipse	WSW	6°
6.26 am	Civil dawn (Sun 6º below horizon)	~	~
6.53 am	Sunrise	ENE	0°
6.57 am	Moon sets (still in total eclipse)	WSW	0°

(Note to file: adjust the camera’s internal clock before future events. For the record, my camera was 14 minutes fast).

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Image © R.Powell

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