Tag moon

Another eclipse in the books

Photonstopper
A stack of images taken two minutes after the eclipse peaked (delayed due to cloud cover) illustrates the approximate 96 percent eclipse. The brightest area at top is direct sunlight, the gray area beneath it is penumbral shadow, with transition to the coppery-colored umbral shadow where no direct sunlight reaches the lunar surface.

The August 27 – 28 partial lunar eclipse was enjoyable to watch but presented some challenges to photograph. Before nightfall, we set up a modestly sized telescope, the Askar 103APO, outside the observatory. The scope has a shorter focal length, less magnification, which would allow its camera to record the entire disk of Moon during the eclipse. The large observatory telescope, with nearly twice the focal length, would show less of the lunar disk because of its higher magnification. This outdoor setup seemed like a good idea and it was, in principle. But Moon and nearby trees presented our first challenge of the night.

Trees blocked the view from the observatory so a telescope was set up in a more hospitable site. A 100-foot extension cord allowed utility power to run the telescope mount. A blue lens flare is visible above the bright dot that is Moon.

Moonrise was at 8:01 PM EDT and its altitude from the horizon was going to be fairly low. The mature neighboring trees are quite tall and wide. The combination was not good and, as Moon climbed higher and eclipse time approached, time was running out. From the vantage point of the telescope outside the observatory, Moon would be behind the trees during the entire first half of the event. We had to move it.

Scouting out a new location that allowed a clear view of the sky, we located one near enough to facilities to connect to utility electric power. In darkness we moved the imaging setup.

The dark umbra of Earth’s shadow was already taking a substantial bite out of the night’s full Moon as we finished setup at the new location. We were impressed at how well our old (ca. July 2005) Meade LXD75 mount performed, tracking accurately with minimal alignment; it was a real champ! One camera automation accessory did not function as expected so we removed it and ran the Canon EOS 7D Mk. 2 camera manually. Things went well from that point on with an unobstructed view of a clear sky and a darkening Moon. The night was quiet and mild, not even a jacket was necessary, as we gazed at the dimming Moon and listened to night sounds.

This was to be a partial eclipse, meaning not all of the lunar disk would be within the deep umbra — a bright sliver of sunlight would be seen at one edge, while the opposite side of the disk would be dark, and hopefully colorful. Peak coverage was to be reached at 12:13 AM EDT. It was about 20 minutes before peak when we spotted it: a bank of clouds drifting in from the north, illuminated by ground-based light pollution, headed in to spoil the night!

A bank of clouds approached the eclipsing Moon as the hour of peak eclipse neared. A lens flare is visible to the lower right of the bright lunar dot, and a view stars can be seen in the sky.

That is how it goes, sometimes. Clouds, missteps, or mishaps spoil an otherwise exciting occasion. It doesn’t help to curse the clouds but that did not help to stop the whispered oaths! Happily, gaps were present in the cloudy mess, clear sky visible through them, hopefully allowing peeks at the eclipse. The clouds arrived, mostly blocking but indeed occasionally teasing glimpses at the then fully-developed event. We made images from about two minutes before the peak, and images from about two minutes after, but nothing from the peak moment.

Peak eclipse, at 12:13 AM EDT. Very, very eclipsed as the clouds obscured the view. Gaps in the cloud cover allowed images to be made before and after the astronomical peak coverage was reached.

An extended period of clarity followed, as the cloud bank continued on its southbound journey. We shot more images of the eclipsed Moon, rapidly changing exposure settings, seeking to record a wide range of graphic data against future processing efforts before the scene changed much. Imaging done, we took one last look, parked the telescope, then stowed and secured gear for the night. It was late and we had daytime promises to keep.

So that was another lunar eclipse in the books. There was frustration, to be sure, but there were rewards. There won’t be another lunar eclipse visible here until January 12, 2028 (a weak partial eclipse), with the next total lunar eclipse on June 26, 2029. One has the opportunity to see just so many eclipses in their lifetime, so we try and see every one we can!

P.S. At 12:30 AM, the diminishing eclipse became visible from the spot where we first set up the small telescope. And the sky was clear.

August 27 brings deep partial lunar eclipse

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Late on the night of August 27, Moon will resemble this view of the March 14, 2025 lunar eclipse. Photo by James Guilford

The night of August 27 – 28, 2026 brings an opportunity for eclipse viewing: a deep partial lunar eclipse. Just shy of a total lunar eclipse, the night’s Full Moon will be deep within Earth’s shadow, 96 percent covered by Earth’s dark inner shadow or umbra.

Given clear skies, we are in a favorable position to see the eclipse in its entirety. In Northeast Ohio, the eclipse begins at 9:24 PM as Moon edges into Earth’s soft outer shadow or penumbra. At 10:34 PM the show really begins with Earth’s deep umbra visibly darkening the edge of the lunar disk. Maximum eclipse begins at 12:13 AM, August 28 with the southern portion of Moon very dark and its northern edge relatively bright; hopefully, coppery coloration will be visible on areas of the lunar disk between.

Moon continues its movement through Earth’s shadow, reversing the eclipse process. The partial eclipse ends at 1:52 AM, and the penumbral eclipse ends at 3:02 as the bright Full Moon shines. If you are eclipse watching from a location other than ours, you can check out TimeAndDate.com which can calculate event timings for your spot on the map.

Partial eclipse timings and projected appearances are giving in this graphic, with time expressed as UTC. Graphic Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon’s orbit carries it through the shadow cast into space by Earth. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon’s orbit carries it between Earth and Sun and Moon’s shadow falls upon Earth’s surface. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are perfectly safe to view with no special precautions needed — it’s moonlight — and no telescope is required. Binoculars may add to the experience but are also not required for lunar eclipse watching.

Mare Imbrium, morning here, evening there

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Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Showers, as it appeared during Moon’s Last Quarter phase on the morning of August 5, 2026. The distinct crater with spidery ejecta lines radiating from it is Copernicus. With a diameter of about 711 miles, Imbrium is one of the largest craters in the Solar System. A colossal impact from a protoplanetary object during the Late Heavy Bombardment produced the huge ring nearly four billion years ago. Image Credit: Stella-Luna Observatory / James Guilford

Continuing to explore daytime imaging of Moon, August 5 presented us with good skies and a Last Quarter lunar phase. One of our favorite areas to observe is Mare Imbrium, filled with subtle detail and a mountainous arc, the Montes Apenninus defining much of its shape. Last Quarter occurs when the light on Moon’s Earth-facing side has proceeded half way from Full to New — in other words, it’s afternoon or late day at Imbrium. The setting Sun brightly illuminates the mountain tops of Iridium’s eastern edge, along with the eastern walls of craters within or nearby. A “bonus feature” is crater Copernicus, just south of Iridium‘s defining mountains, with its deep, textured walls, central peaks, and expansive ejecta rays. The Sea of Showers has much to offer viewers.

Daytime Moon redux

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Earth’s Waning Crescent Moon, July 9, 2026, at 15:05 UTC / 11:05 AM EDT. The image was rotated clockwise by 90° for aesthetic reasons. Credit: Stella-Luna Observatory / James Guilford.

Once again, following a Solar observing session, we turned our telescope to Moon during daytime. This time, we employed the same monochrome camera we used imaging Sun but, after removing the solar protections, added an infrared pass filter. The result, via the Askar 103 APO telescope, was spectacular! Only minimal processing was needed to achieve a sharp, contrasty, detailed image of Earth’s nearest neighbor.

Sun and Moon

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The northwestern Solar quadrant shown via hydrogen-alpha light, false color applied, shows the chaotic surface of the chromosphere, with several filaments visible. Along the rim are prominences contrasted against the blackness of space.

The morning presented an excellent opportunity for Solar observing and imaging — the sky was clear and, these days, Sun is rising between trees instead of behind them! While we have been following our star’s singular large sunspot for a few days, it turned out our best image from the morning was of the northwest Solar quadrant. Details in the chromosphere were beautifully rendered and several interesting prominences of various shapes and sizer graced the rim.

During one of the Solar imaging runs, we looked up and out through the dome aperture at the deep blue morning sky. There, floating on the denim background, was the Last Quarter Moon. Once finished with Sun, we aimed the scope at Moon, removed the solar gear from the white light telescope, and did a portrait of old Luna. We’ve done this not so long ago but still get a kick out of our daytime Moon.

Earth’s Moon in its Last Quarter phase is shown in this two-panel image made at 9:15 AM EDT, July 8, 2026.

By the way, the latest addition to our setup is a rig by ADM that allows two scopes to be held simultaneously on a single mount; that has been a wonderful way to quickly change between Solar wavelengths, and to use the individual telescopes without swapping out and rebalancing the system. The ADM rack is very well made, fully adjustable, and we have no fear of equipment coming loose and crashing to the ground — possibly the most important feature!

Multi-telescope rack by ADM allows two telescopes to ride the pier mount at the same time, delivering flexibility and efficiency to our setup.

Small scope provides big results in moonshot

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Full disk image of Earth’s Moon at 97 percent illumination, as imaged on June 27, 2026, at 11:51 PM EDT local time! Askar 103 APO refractor, ProPlanet 642 nM IR pass filter.

After recent struggles in an effort to get sharp images from the old C11 telescope, it was a pleasure to observe Earth’s Moon through the Askar 103 APO refractor! Clouds drifted through at various densities but — oh, my! — what a fine view! What the little Askar lacks in focal length, it possesses in sharpness. So we excitedly present this image of our Gibbous Moon!



Crater Copernicus and vicinity, with Moon at waxing Gibbous phase, 97 percent illumination. Askar 103 APO refractor, ProPlanet 642 nM IR pass filter, Tele Vue 2X Barlow. Image Credit: James Guilford

Lunar Crater Copernicus (above), with its expansive web of ejecta rays, dominates this scene captured June 27 (local time). To the left of Copernicus is Crater Kepler, with a smaller but still visible “splat” mark, both contrasting well against the dark field of Mare Insularum. Left still farther, on the terminator, is a figure-eight ring feature formed by Craters Cavalerius (top) and Hevelius (bottom). This is our favorite image from the brief Saturday night session.

Southern Moon and telescope trial

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The heavily-cratered south-eastern area of Earth’s Moon is seen here, imaged just before midnight, June 23, 2026. Stella-Luna Observatory / James Guilford

This is the southern end of Earth’s waxing gibbous phase Moon, as imaged late Tuesday night. The heavily-cratered area along the terminator includes Crater Tycho — with a central peak lit by the rising Sun — and the dark circular expanse of Clavius, with the top of its western crater wall extending into the deep shadows of the terminator. We used the old Celestron C11 for this session as we continue to evaluate its performance and condition. We continue to be concerned about whether the telescope’s focus issue is simple collimation or some more serious combination of problems.

Not in the southern area of our Moon but certainly visible, even without a telescope, is Mare Crisium, shown at the center of this image made light night June 24, 2026. Stella-Luna Observatory / James Guilford.

Lunar Blueprints

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The northwest quadrant of Earth’s Moon, viewed during morning daylight reveals many wonderful details with an appearance that differs from nighttime views in more than just color. A few points of interest: The crater with impressive ejecta rays at lower left is Kepler; to its right is large, distinctive Crater Copernicus with its central peaks. Just above Copernicus are the peaks of Montes Carpatus. The bright spot at upper left is Crater Aristarchus with Herodotus, just to its left. Finally, at the upper right corner, is the distinctive C-shape of Sinus Iridium.

This morning, before stowing equipment for the duration of upcoming days of cloudy weather, we aimed the 11-inch scope at Earth’s waning gibbous Moon. Images were captured at about 7:50 AM EDT, after the sky had turned to blue, lending its color to Moon as viewed from Earth.

Celestron 11-inch telescope is shown aimed at Moon — a tiny white dot — in the clear, blue morning sky.

The big Celestron SCT remains in need of adjustment or, possibly, overhaul but does deliver some pleasing results! We’ve been struggling but have not yet achieved best acceptable collimation, so the scope hasn’t spent much time on the permanent pier in the observatory.

The sort of flaw that one will see from telescopes that are out of collimation — alignment of the light path within the telescope — is stars that look a bit like comets, and focus difficulties. After several efforts we are not where we need to be with the C11 to use it as our primary observatory instrument.

Unfortunately, due to lack of space, we can have only one telescope at a time on a permanent mount beneath the dome. We are considering next steps which include acquisition of a new primary telescope, upgrading of the mount, and means of mounting two instruments at a time on the pier.

As mentioned, cloudy, rainy weather is expected to be the rule for the week ahead so the telescope is parked, and accessories stowed. We’ll be working a bit on our meteor camera and thinking about where to go from here.

Our favorite image from the morning’s “Daytime Moon” efforts shows Moon’s heavily-bombarded southwest quadrant: craters, within craters, within craters. As with the other blue sky image shown here, this one is darker and more vivid than its actual appearance; we couldn’t resist giving the picture a bit more “snap” to bring out detail.
This image of the northwest quadrant of Earth’s Moon shows the image as a photographic negative — amber in color, not blue as in a previous post. Ejecta rays are especially visible around Crater Kepler, near the center of this picture. We enjoy images like this because they feel like a throwback to the early days of astrophotography, and because they tend to reveal delicate details — I mean, just look at the ejecta rays around the craters, especially Kepler just below center of this picture.

Checking out the Celestron

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The Celestron C-11 telescope immediately after installation on the observatory mount, pointing straight up during balancing efforts.

Last night we finally had an opportunity to check out the C-11 in the observatory. The 24-year-old scope had languished in storage for maybe a year or more after daytime collimation efforts without real world tests.

The black tube of the telescope points up, through the red-illuminated dome interior, towards a mostly-cloudy sky. Our First Quarter Moon shines brightly through the clouds. A bright speck of light is visible above and to the left of Moon; it’s planet Jupiter and clouds closed in before we could take a look through the telescope!

The sky was mostly clear until, of course, we opened the dome. Viewing Moon through “sucker holes” between clouds, things looked great. We attached the DSLR and shot some tests; things looked okay, if a bit dark through the viewfinder, though not outstanding. Clouds closed in solidly before we could reinstall an eyepiece and take a really critical look. We closed up. Checking the images on the computer we discovered all of them out of focus.

There is the possibility the camera did not interface well on the telescope. Perhaps the atmosphere in those sucker holes was shaky. We’ll check again and collimate on the next clear night.

Clear night, Moon bright

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November 3, 2025 — The air was still and the moon so bright and clear tonight, we had to open up the observatory long enough to take a peek and a pic! Moon was 92% illuminated in its waxing gibbous phase, lighting the landscape around us, no flashlight required. Technical: Askar 103 APO telescope, TeleVue Powermate 2X Barlow, Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4 DSLR, single exposure.