M i s s o u r i S k i e s L u n a r E c l i p s e P a g e
"Total Lunar Eclipses"
| "I have been witness to sixteen total lunar eclipses during my over 30 years as an amateur astronomer. Each one I remember fairly vividly in one way or another. Each one was different both in the way that the moon appeared as well as my personal experience in observing it. Even though the moon itself hasn't changed in billions of years it definitely doesn't look the same each time it is observed....and I don't mean just the phases that it goes through either. The skies of Earth are forever changing how it looks whether it be atmospheric steadiness, cloud cover variations, earth-shine brightness, and the wide variety of colors that appear during a total eclipse like you see on this page." - Dan Bush |
A List of Total Lunar Eclipses that I've seen including pictures.
| My first eclipse was the lunar eclipse of December 30, 1982. I observed nearly the entire eclipse from indoors. It was also a very early morning eclipse which meant that not a lot of people that I knew saw it. I enjoyed viewing it with my mother and father who were early risers. This eclipse was very dark. I lost sight of the moon during totality. Had I gone outside or had more observing experience I might have been able to see it. |
| I don't remember a lot about what the moon looked like during this eclipse because I hosted a star party and was very busy answering questions and "repointing" telescopes. More than 70 people were in my backyard to view the eclipse through my 6" f/8 Criterion Telescope and binoculars. I did not take any photographs of this eclipse. |
| Weather was good for this eclipse and I managed to get some shots of it using an old Albinar 70-300mm lens and my Nikon FG camera. By today's standards the images don't measure up but at the time I was very pleased. This was a fairly dark eclipse if I remember correctly. |
| I video taped
this eclipse on a cold winter's evening and the weather
was very clear. I hope to post some frame
grabs of this event later. I realized after this
event that video was not the way to record this type of
event. |
| This eclipse was well placed and timed in the evening sky. The only bad thing was the cloudiness which interfered with any picture taking of the totality phase. Below is my best attempt at the totality phase. |
This eclipse was well
placed in the evening sky but once again the clouds caused some
troubles.
| This eclipse occurred early on a hazy and warm morning in August. Unfortunately the haze caused some problems with the photographs. The moon all but disappeared into thicker haze long before it set below the horizon. I think that if I had a choice I would rather that lunar eclipses occur during the winter months than in the summer due to photographic considerations. The air is just more transparent during the fall and winter months. |
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The eclipse of 2008 will stand out in my mind as being the coldest eclipse so far. My first eclipse in 1982 may have been just as cold but I observed it from indoors. By the time that I was done and the high clouds were starting to move in the temperature had dropped to about zero degrees fahrenheit. My equipment was not working well and neither was my body by the time it was over. It became very tough to perform even the easiest of tasks such as switching camera lenses or to rotate the focuser on one of the telescopes. I felt like a climber on Mount Everest struggling to move about. It was worth it, however. As the eclipse progressed my visual surroundings went through an interesting transformation. The surrounding countryside was bright when the eclipse began with the moon shining brightly on the white snow-covered landscape. At totality my surroundings were very dark which made it seem that much colder. Where I was once able to read text and see my observatory surroundings without any trouble I was now in darkness and feeling very isolated. There were no sounds to speak of except for the interruption of a passing car every now and then or the occasional bark of a dog. This was an eclipse for all the senses that is for sure. Unlike the previous August eclipse, this one was well placed in the eastern sky to view from my observatory. I used an 8" f/6 reflector and a 6" f/8 refractor telescope to take pictures and a tiny 70mm f/7 refractor to view it visually. The view with the naked eye was great. Seeing the totally eclipsed moon suspended there in the constellation of Leo, the lion, with the planet Saturn nearby will not soon be forgotten. It looked like a painting to me. I wanted to take a wide angle photograph showing the moon in Leo but the balance of the brighter moon (even during totality) and constellation would not work so I just stuck to telescopic images. My best image taken of totality is below. |
Partial Phase of the eclipse
Wide view above with the 300mm lens.
Totality
| For me this is
the eclipse that almost wasn't. It was an eclipse
that occurred during the early morning hours on a day in
which the winter solstice also occurred. It was
referred to as the "Solstice Eclipse". I went to
bed the previous evening with a thick stratus deck of
clouds hanging over me with all hope lost as to seeing
this eclipse. By midnight the uneclipsed
moon was clearly visible through a high thin layer of
cirro-stratus clouds so I decided to get up and try to
observe it anyway. Within a half hour of getting
up the skies were clearing further and a wave of terror
washed over me that I had not prepared any of my
equipment for this event since I had written it off due
to the previous night's clouds. I then spent the
next hour before totality hurriedly configuring my
telescopes and mounts to photograph the moon in
eclipse. I made it just in time albeit a little
less perfect than I'm used to operating. But it
worked. The results were my most successful
images yet of a totally eclipsed moon.
The appearance of this eclipse was very similar to that of the 2008 event. Weather conditions were much better this time with temperatures in the 30's F and little or no wind. I used the same telescope configuration as I did in 2008. Why change the equipment if it works? Something new I had at my disposal was the Nikon D90 camera which offered better resolution and better sensitivity with less image noise. The images came out the same as the D70 last time but it was easier to get better results. The eclipse was quite bright again which had a lot to do with the clarity of Earth's atmosphere. Because of it's similarity to 2008 I'd say that not much has changed in the atmosphere since then. This seemed to be a longer and deeper eclipse. The eclipse began high overhead and was easy to photograph from inside the observatory once again. This was very handy. As I watched and photographed this eclipse it dawned on me that each of the eclipses in which I've taken part are a testament to the technology that we humans have available with which to record such an event. Starting off with just a diary above I graduated from one camera technology to the next with increasingly better results in my opinion. There isn't any technology that I would refer to as inferior because each was what I needed at the time to record the event for my memory. Below is a sampling of the images that I made on this early morning. They are of different exposures and may be brighter of dimmer than actuality. |
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Eclipse
of
April 15, 2014 "#1 in a Tetrad of Four Lunar
Eclipses in a Sequence"
| This was a first in a series of four lunar eclipses visible in a tetrad of eclipses. Conditions for this eclipse were great occurring on the heals of a passing cold front with rain and very cool temperatures for an April in Missouri. Partly cloudy skies early on in the evening gave way to mostly clear skies during totality. Temperatures dropped well below freezing. This eclipse was much darker than previously seen in recent times but not as dark as the 1982 event. I simultaneously photographed the event with 3 cameras; two DSLR's and an all sky camera. The all sky camera view was broadcast "almost live" to the web. Coyotes were howling during the darkest part of the eclipse. I have had a run of good luck with the weather and the past 3 eclipses. I don't expect this to continue and will not be disappointed if one of the next 3 gets "rained out". |
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Eclipse
of
October 8, 2014 "#2 in a Tetrad of Four Lunar
Eclipses in a Sequence"
| This was the
second in a series of four lunar eclipses visible in a
tetrad of eclipses. Because of some interference
by trees and the low altitude of the event in the
western skies of Missouri I was not able to use my
observatory and tracking devices to photograph this
eclipse. Because of this I used property owned by
my brother, John, just south of Albany, Missouri near
Lee's Lake. I was able to use my telephoto lenses
and an AstroTrac tracking device to photograph the event
and catch some interesting images including an eclipsed
moon with a dark blue sky background and a plane passing
in front of the eclipsed moon. To cap everything
off there was an unrelated very bright and long track
meteor that originated in the direction of the totally
eclipsed moon and passed nearly overhead. |
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| This was the
third in a series of four lunar eclipses visible in a
tetrad of eclipses. It was not very well placed in
my Midwestern sky for photography and was not visible
during its brief totality. I enjoyed witnessing it
anyway. The early spring sound of frogs provided a
backdrop for this cold but clear morning. The
colors in this eclipse looked like they were going to be
different than in others including a blueish cast to
parts of the eclipsed moon. |
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This was the
fourth in a series of four lunar eclipses visible in a
tetrad of eclipses. This, my 13th Total Lunar
Eclipse, was hands down my favorite eclipse. I will list
the reasons why this was a very special event.
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| The harvest
moon rising on eclipse night. |
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| A
plane passes in front of the partially eclipsed moon |
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| The
moon nears totality. |
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| The
harvest moon totally eclipsed. |
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| Partial phase egress of the eclipse. | |
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| A startrail view of the eclipse from start to finish. | |
| Total Lunar Eclipse of January 31, 2018 | |
| This eclipse was difficult to observe as totality begin just a few minutes before the moon sat and the sun rose. This coupled with clouds, wind, and cold made for an unpleasant experience. There were a few instances before totality, though, when the moon came out and presented itself for a few tracked images with the 500mm lens. | |
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| Partial phase ingress of the eclipse just before the clouds moved in. | |
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| An overexposed view of the partial phase ingress of the eclipse. | |
| Total Lunar Eclipse of November 19, 2021 | |
| I saw my first lunar eclipse on
December 30, 1982. That was almost 40 years since the date of
this most recent eclipse. I can remember that event like it was
yesterday. Now I get to add this one to my memories. Even
though this eclipse wasn't technically a "Total" Lunar Eclipse it was
close enough that I'm going to count it. It was a deep partial
eclipse and exhibited all the characteristics of a total lunar
eclipse. The conditions for this eclipse were not ideal with
relatively cold temperatures and high thin cirrus clouds spoiling the
last half of the event. But I cannot complain as the naked eye
and telescopic views were fantastic. I used my new
Apochromatic Refractor of 805mm focal length to do most of the
principle photography. I coupled that with a new (to me) CG-5
tracking mount to accomplish these results. All
hardware performed perfectly. The mount tracked the moon
successfully for nearly 3 hours with no issues or adjustments. |
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| This is the Penumbral Phase of the Eclipse. This was very noticable during this eclipse. |
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| Partial Phase of the Eclipse |
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| This was taken near mid eclipse. Nikon D7200 with 805mm f/7 Orion Eon Apo. |
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| The eclipsed moon was in great company. It shared the sky with the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters. Nikon D750 with 85mm f/4 Lens. |
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| Another image taken during deepest eclipse. Nikon D7200 with 805mm f/7 Orion Eon Apo. |
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| This sunrise followed the
eclipse a couple of hours later. I found it thought provoking
that the very same physical processes that created these colors of this beautiful sunrise are the same as those that created the colors found on the moon during a Total Lunar Eclipse. |
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Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15, 2022
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Wow. This page is really getting long. I can't believe I've seen this many Total Lunar Eclipses. I never get tired of seeing this celestial event. I really enjoyed this eclipse. The weather was great. The sky was very clear as a storm system had just passed through the area the previous day. I did run into problems with dew as the night wore on but by then I'd gotten what I needed for this event. There is some debate as to where this eclipse falls on the Danjon Scale. To me this eclipse appeared darker than in year's past but it was also lower on the horizon than most. A darker totality may have been caused by the recent eruption of a Volcano in the Tongo region of the South Pacific. The moon was in a fairly rich star field during this particular eclipse and there were many brighter stars visible during totality. There was even an occultation of a double star as the night went on. All of my equipment worked as expected. If you're an amateur astronomery then you know that this is not always the case. I had several cameras and mounts recording the event including surveillance meteor cameras, digital SLR's etc. I was so thrilled that I was able to view the eclipse from the observatory. This is not always the case due to the placement of the moon in sky. At first I thought it would be behind the neighbors trees but it cleared them by a lot. Here is a Youtube Link to a video showing the entire duration of the eclipse along with Airglow: Total Lunar Eclipse & Airglow |
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| The image above shows the scope pointed at the moon as it rose in the southeastern part of the sky. |
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| This image shows the observatory as it appeared as photography got underway. |
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| It's
this phase of a total lunar eclipse that I like the most. It's
almost akin to the diamond ring effect of a total solar eclipse. |
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| Totality |
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| The moon is coming out of Earth's shadow at this point. |
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| The
image above is an HDR image experiment where I was trying to balance
out both the eclipsed and sunlit part of the moon. |
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| Putting away the equipment. My night was complete. |
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| Total Lunar Eclipse of November 8, 2022 | |
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| Wind and
trees forced me to move my location to my front porch. This is
exactly where I launched my amateur astronomy career 40+ years ago. |
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| Fisheye view of my observing location. That's the star Sirius in the blue sky. |
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| First view with the clouds floating through the field of view. |
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| TOTALITY |
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| Rainbow at Elam Bend |
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©1982-2021 D. Bush |
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