Report on Lunar Eclipse Observing / Photography Session

By akarshsimha; Published 04 Mar 2007

Hi!
This is a report on our observation and photography session for today
morning's lunar eclipse.

We were seven of us: Shashank, Hemanth, Pavan, Dr. H.M. Jagannatha (Shashank's father), Utkarsh (my brother), S. Abhiram (my brother's friend) who all met together on Hemanth's terrace at about 1:30 AM!

We began by setting up our telescopes, admiring the full moon, viewing
Jupiter and Saturn and looking at how the camera was focussing at the
prime focus on Shashank's "prime-focus-enabled" 8" f/6 telescope.

We saw the eclipse begin at about 2:45 AM with a thicker version of
the penumbral shadow towards an edge. At 3:03 AM or so, we began to
see the umbral shadow. The sky became darker and darker... more and
more stars became visible. When the eclipse went half through, we
managed to see the reddish colour with the naked eye.
The eclipse seemed to enter pretty fast and we photographed many
stages of the eclipse using SLRs at prime focus, SLRs in afocal
couples, Handycams on tripod as well as coupled, Mobile phone cameras
etc.

We enjoyed the last bit of the moon's light being engulfed into the
umbral eclipse! It was simply an awesome sight through Hemant's 12"
telescope! It was simply beautiful!

And then, just as the eclipse reached its midpoint, came the clouds
and ruined the rest of the observing / photography. Anyway, we had
nothing left - we had seen it all - but the intended audience never
turned up - the residents of Krishnanagar apartments. However, one
resident who turned up in the early morning, had to go away
disappointed, due to the nearly-overcast skies.

Many other people from Bangalore have also photographed the eclipse
including Satya Kumar and one Mr. Sharath.

Waiting for the photographs to be developed. Will post the handycam /
mobile phone shots on bas.org.in at a later date.