Total Lunar Eclipse of 02/20/08

Composite Image of four photographs taken between 8:51pm and 9:51pm CST. Click on image for larger view

In sorting through a huge virtual stack of digital photographs that needed organization, I realized I never posted any of my photographs of the total lunar eclipse of February 20th, 2008. Some of these photographs have been featured on other sites, thus the watermark.

The next total lunar eclipse visible from here in the US won’t come around until December of 2010. The only wild card was the weather. Clouds are already streaming into southern Kansas in advance of a coming storm, but fortunately they held off until the second half of the eclipse. The entire first half, including the beginning of totality was still clearly visible from Kansas.

These photographs were captured during the first stages of the eclipse prior to clouds moving in right around totality. Shots taken either with a Canon 30D 70-300mm @300mm, f/5.6 exposures varying from 1/1000s to 1s or handheld through 26mm eyepiece of my Meade DS-2114LNT reflector telescope.

The first image was taken at 8:51pm, CST. Click all images for a higher resolution view.

8:51pm CST. Canon 30D, 300mm f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:08pm CST. Canon 30D, 300mm f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:26pm CST. Canon 30D, 260mm f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:27pm CST. Clouds now becoming visible. Canon 30D, 1/2s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:51pm CST. Clouds streaming in from the south. Canon 30D 1s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view