Total lunar eclipse 2004/10/27

I set up my scope near my apartment at Green Tree, Pittsburgh. Several neighbors came to enjoy the view.

Before the eclipse began, I took a photo of moonlight's spectrum with my spectrometer made from a CD and a cereal box. As moonlight is nothing but reflected sunlight, the spectrum resembles the solar spectrum. That is, the spectrum is continuous with dark absorb lines, i.e. the Fraunhofer lines (some of them are marked). For details of the spectrometer visit my spectrometer page.

the full moon

the CD spectroscope

lunar spectrum

Totality seemed to be darker and less colorful than last year's total eclipse . Next photo was taken with 8"/f6 Dob, 18mm eyepiece adaptor, Nikon coolpix 995 camera.

total lunar eclipse 2004/10/27

I also took a star field photo during totality with a Canon 300D digital rebel camera. Note the Pleiades at lower left.

star field during the total lunar eclipse 2004/10/27

A nice corona formed around the eclipsed moon when some clouds rolled over after totality.

corona around the eclipsed moon, 2004/10/27