A
total lunar eclipse was visible on January 20-21 2019 over large
parts of
the Earth. Here are five views taken from the Washington,
DC area
as the moon moved into Earth's shadow. The last two images
were
made at about the time of full immersion into the shadow; the
moon
appeared a dull coppery red to the unaided eye at that time.
Because the date was only about 1 month after winter solstice,
the moon
was very near its maximum altitude at totality; also, the
moon's orbit happened to be very
close to its perigee (nearest approach to Earth) for this
eclipse.
The equipment consisted
of a
hand-held Canon D80 digital SLR camera with a Canon EF 400mm
lens (set
to f/5.6). The exposure times, ISO values and local times
are given below.
Image
1 [1/4000s ISO=500]
20Jan19 22:01:21 (local time) - partial eclipse begins at 22:34 (penumbral began at
21:37) Image
2 [1/1000s ISO=500]
20Jan19 23:13:00 Image
3 [1/250s ISO=3200]
20Jan19 23:35:27 Image
4 [1/100s ISO=12800]
20Jan19 23:58:33 - total
eclipse began at 23:41 Image
5 [1/100s ISO=16000]
21Jan19 00:01:35