A quiet beauty

"A solar eclipse is spectacular, but a lunar eclipse has a quiet beauty all of its own" Sir Patrick Moore.

I had my trusty Pentax Option P80, very basic camera, on night setting, timer delay and tripod to capture the lunar eclipse.

Notes on the unfolding event.

Just woken up: Clear skies, moon very high, and half eaten away.

Moon the shape of one of those candied orange and lemon sweets you can buy at Christmas.

You couldn't wish for better. Moon so high it is visible virtually anywhere looking up, and no clouds whatsoever.

The outline of the earth's shadow against the moon is very clear. You can see the moon is being obscured by our shadow.

The Inca thought a jaguar was attacking the moon, and beat their dogs! Nasty. But if you have dogs, are they reacting? Please don't beat them!

Getting down to a tiny sliver of light..

Camera on tripod getting nice shots

Almost entered totality

This was definitely worth setting alarm to see

As the light of the moon fades more stars can be seen around that area of the sky

Looking to the south east, Orion s Belt and Rigel very clear

Capella almost vertically above looking east

Moon now like a lump of coal, glowing in the sky

Well some of us have to go to work, so I'll leave the moon to return to its resplendent white fullsomeness all by itself. If you are a night owl, have fun watching. Just to tell you: far east and low, Venus has just risen. Look for the very very bright star.

Tweets on the event...
Astronomy Magazine ‏@AstronomyMag 1h1 hour ago
September 27/28 sky event: Full Moon occurs at 2:50h UT (10:50 p.m. EDT) in a total lunar eclipse, which begins in just over an hour

Sky & Telescope ‏@SkyandTelescope 1h1 hour ago
So much red.

Malcolm Ferey ‏@MalcolmFerey 52m52 minutes ago
He who is illuminated with the brightest light, shall cast the darkness shadow #BloodMoon

Binky Bowles-Balls ‏@TheOnlyGuru 39m39 minutes ago
This #SuperBloodMoon has to be one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.

It's creepy and so dark out here.#jerseyci

Will Rodgers ‏@WilliamRodgers 50m50 minutes ago
SuperMoon will never be as cool as BatMoon...

Gyles Brandreth ‏@GylesB1 27m27 minutes ago
And is it my imagination or do the stars seems brighter? (The cocoa certainly seems darker.)

Gyles Brandreth ‏@GylesB1 25m25 minutes ago
"@swansonian: I really enjoyed that but baby's nightlight moon would have been a more accurate name.". Nicely put.
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