Get up early, stay up late or not bother?

[Paul M]

The umbra has just about cleared the the Moon now and the brightness has revealed just how hazy the sky has been.

Venus and Jupiter plain and bright in the east but struggled to pick out Mars and Regulus unaided.

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[L8-Nite]

Was a great show last night and viewed until totality when a bank of clouds drifted in. Earlier in the evening I thought about about what a great idea it would be to observe from the ancient Henge which is near by. I mentioned it to a few neighbours who seemed interested to join in, but ended up going by myself. It was surreal as I was the only one there.  I took note that two of the monoliths in line with my scope on the centre plinth lined up perfectly with the Moon at the start of the eclipse. I only had one photo turn out which I took through the eyepiece, but all in all, it was a great event. 

Edit: Will post photos of the Henge when I have time later today. 

[bejay1957]

Things had got pretty misty, and damp, by the end of the eclipse here - but well worth the lack of sleep :-)

[Davesellars]

incredible!  It stayed clear here all night!  Loved the point when it had just come out of totality.  Was viewing through my C8 SCT and taking photos every 10 seconds with my 80ED and DSLR it was a tricky subject though especially as it got towards totality - I don't think the exposures were long enough really (2 seconds) but hey.

[DaveS]

There was thin high cloud when I went to put the rubbish out at 11 o/c with a ring around the moon as well, so didn't have much hope. Still set the alarm for 3.15 to see totality. When I went out the sky was the most transparent I've seen it in yonks. I don't know what colours others saw, but to me the moon looked a dark ochre rather than red. There was still a sliver of light on the south pole so that might have affected the colour I saw. Elsewhere, I saw 5 or 6 stars of UMi (Normally only 3 are clearly visible here), a couple of stars in Pegasus (Normally I can't see any) and I'm sure I glimpsed the Milky Way at the zenith. Not sure about M31, call it a maybe.

Mind you, there was a heavy dew on the cars when I looked out the front. Turned in about 3.35-3.40 after looking around with the bins as I was getting cold, not dressed for an observing session. Still a happy bunny though  .

[Floater]

Glad it worked out for a lot of Loungers.

Here was very cloudy and almost impossible to see anything. But what I could see, I saw!

Didn't wake Mrs Floater - she would have been very underwhelmed ...

[Stub Mandrel]

Amazing.

Visually that was more profound than the 1999 eclipse (which was only partial for me). Went from bright moonlight that was enough to make out some colour, to a dark starry night. You couldn't help wondering if primitive societies would have been awe-struck, or perhaps not with their greater familiarity with the night sky?

I think I know where the legend of the red dragon and the white dragon comes from now! Two-nil on aggregate ;-)

I had my bridge camera tracking and taking shots every 30 seconds from well before the start to 'complete disappearance'. I then reset it to expose the red moon and follow the changes, and also got some wide field shots showing the starry background.

I also had the 10-D set up on the 150PL to get nearly full-frames shots. A lot of playing with exposure, hopefully I can do some fancy stacking get both parts of the moon well exposed. With luck I have caught the beginning/end of some occultations as well.

My daughter got up to see it, I had my small scope set up for optical viewing. Within minutes she had the knack of afocal shots and keeping the disc in view. It absolutely blew her away and with the HDR on her iphone she was able to get both illuminated and red parts of the disc showing some detail. I will post some of her pics.

Visually, it was interesting how the eye keeps pace with the moon, yet the stars slowly come out. I had to move the scope to keep it in view and had to totally guess the PA as polaris was out of shot. Didn't do too badly, fortunately.

Because daughter was using it I saw very little though the scope and focused on using my eyes and taking pics, but what I did see was magical, especially once the stars came out around the moon.

Some time after three I could see the milky way through cassiopeia and into perseus - proof that my skys aren't  too bad when there is no cloud. I decided to slew round and get some shots of the Plieades, a bit later I spotted Orion, but not log after that a mist started rising and the moon rapidly faded to a dim glow. It would finally get behind the trees for good, so I packed up.

[callisto]

What a fantastic sight!.......I started at 01:15 to 03:30 with lots of coffee in between 

My "non astronomical wife" was even impressed with the "weird sky", so that itself was a winner for me 

Mark

[bish]

Turned out to be  a great night.  We had a bit of mist up on the hill for a while but it didn't effect the view - just had to wipe the camera lens off. Watching the red hue very slowly appear as the Moon got darker was fantastic. The sprinkle of stars around the Moon through my 10x50's was nice to see too. As mentioned above, it looks more like a sphere than  a disc during the eclipse. Tired now!

[happy-kat]

What a sight, nice to read other's reports in this thread.

We had no plans but as I went to the loo just after 3 and saw it got my partner up too and watched all the way to my favourite part. That moment the left edge suddenly had an intense white light as the sun broke through.

[Jonk]

I'm more than happy with what I managed to get...I also had the same issue as Stubmandrel where I had to re-expose for totality - from 1/200th up to 4 seconds!

Timelapse looks great...I'll post it when it's processed.

Well worth staying up for.

[bomberbaz]

I will write up a report with some pictures shortly but as mentioned the stars around it looked amazing. I nailed the dullest one down as Hip1121 which was at 2 O'clock, a mag 9.2 star, not bad for a full moon eh 

[Charic]

This one caught my eye for the wrong reasons !!!:

That's set-up just  like the one I saw 'in-store' when I last visited the Newcastle metro centre?

[Stub Mandrel]

I started with 1/400 sec @ 100 ISO ended up using 15 seconds at ISO 1600. That's an exposure ratio of 9,600 : 1!

[bomberbaz]

I started with 1/400 sec @ 100 ISO ended up using 15 seconds at ISO 1600. That's an exposure ratio of 9,600 : 1!

Yeah I struggled with exposure, don't know how the images will turn out once I stack them but whatever, the experience was still worth it.

[ronl]

It certainly was a "Super Moon", from Moon rise, which was spectacular, it looked huge as it came over the

horizon, that on it's own was worth waiting for, and then later, the wonderful eclipse, and the weather was so

kind  for most observers, well worth the droopy eyes today.

[bejay1957]

Before the next one, I will have to work out what is wrong with my eyes and/or Canon 600D camera/optics; despite my best efforts I never got clear focus, and at totality I couldn't see the 'target' in either OVF or Liveview to aim the camera to photograph this part of the event..

[LukeSkywatcher]

What a spectacular event. It stayed clear but misty here for the whole night. The mist didnt hamper the view. I watched until about 30mins into totality and then the moon was going out of view of my comfy bed so i called it a night. It was amazing to see the moon vanish before my eyes only to reappear as a copper coloured disc hanging in the sky when the last slither of light went out. The sky darkening and the stars coming out was pretty crazy. I wasnt planning on it but i did get out the big bins and tripod.

Wrecked today,but it was worth it.