Credit: Jose Armesto: Images with a smartphone through the telescope. As the Moon entered the Earth's shadow, the stars near the Moon could be seen through the telescope.
Do you need an excuse to set up a small telescope, or bring out your binoculars? Well, a total lunar eclipse would certainly do it. As the Moon was beginning to make first contact with the Earth's umbra, we were standing in the front yard with binoculars to our eyes watching for first contact at the western limb of the Moon. The lava filled dark crater of Grimaldi stood out against the contrast as the shadow progressed eastward across the lunar surface. When the shadow reached the bright crater Aristarchus, it was amazingly bright before Earth's shadow quickly dimmed the bright spot. Our neighbors came out to watch the eclipse with us. We set up a small f4 tabletop reflector on a chair so the kids could use it. The telescope was outfitted with a Celestron Zoom 24mm to 8mm eyepiece so they could magnify the Moon when they wanted to. Before you knew it they were chasing the Moon across the sky keeping a careful watch of the growing shadow. The parents allowed their children (8 and 6 years old) to stay up late past their bedtime so they could see this cosmic coincidence. We kept watch until after the Moon made second contact. It was fun to share this experience with our neighbors. I pointed out to the family the stars will become brighter and we'll be able to see more stars as the Moon becomes more engulfed in the shadow of the Earth. We then moved to the backyard to shield us from the parking lights from an activity across the street to see how the brightness of the Moon washes out and affects our ability to see more stars. We took a constellation tour after the Moon was fully eclipsed, constellations we couldn't see before. We could even make out the stars of Virgo and Libra even though the Moon was in the middle of Libra.
Credit: Jose Armesto: Images with a smartphone through the telescope.
Sunset: 8:32 PM
Moon
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