Lost Moon

I watched the initial minutes of the lunar eclipse tonight, using binoculars and my old refracting telescope. I took some pictures, but they did not turn out well:




A proper photograph looks like this:


(via heycalifornia.blogspot.com)

It was cold and clear out, which made for good seeing. Unfortunately, it was very cold, with pretty decent breezes. I managed to stay out until most of the disk was in the umbra (total shadow), but came back in to warm up. I will go out for one last look before turning in, though.

I hope it was cold and clear wherever you were, and you got a chance to see this fairly rare and beautiful phenomenon.

EDIT: The next total lunar eclipse visible here will be on December 21st 2010, but the real show to look for is August 21st, 2017.