Partial lunar eclipse today - "ghosting" and ac issues

[Roger Fairhurst]

There will be a partial lunar eclipse here in Germany today and as we all know these events only happen at full moon..... well I didn't know because I'd never really thought about it before so..   it will be overcast here tonight so I shall miss out.

but, yesterday evening I was driving home from my night class in - you've guessed it - astronomy! The moon was all-but full and I was racing home through red lights, dawdling drivers and suicidal pedestrians because I had seen this huge great whiteish object relatively high in the sky and I wanted to get home to try and capture it with bins, scope or both - important because of the total lack of observing opportunities recently.

Once home I could see that the moon was visible just before it was due to dive behind the trees of the wood at the bottom of my garden. Out with my new Nikon 12x50s, monopod and trigger grip then onto the balcony (conservatory) and................

Magnificent sight and very sharp image from the bins although being so bright the moon did exhibit noticeable ac - red & yellow at the top and turquoise at the bottom. I guess for the price of the bins  I can't complain. The image of the moon was, however, also surrounded by a huge halo of "mist?" and about 45° upwards and right of the moon was a faint but still clearly descernable ghost-like image of the moon, partially obscured by the moon itself.

Unfortunately the moon soon dived behind the trees and so apart from a quick squint through 2 other bins I was unable to make any calm and thought-out observations of these phenomina.

The sky was also partly hazy and not entirely cloud-less so I'm putting some of my observations down to atmospheric conditions.

What do others think?

Kind regards

Roger