September 7 brought a total lunar eclipse to our evening sky – at least in theory. For quite a while, the clouds seemed determined to make sure we wouldn’t see much of it.
A few of us from the Astronomie Club Ostfriesland met in Zwischenbergen in the early evening. The first telescopes and cameras were set up around 6:30 pm, and at that point the weather still looked fairly promising. More members and a few visitors joined us while we waited for the Moon to rise. Then the clouds moved in.
What followed was probably a fairly typical astronomy experience: plenty of equipment, plenty of people looking at the sky and absolutely no Moon to be seen. We kept searching through gaps in the clouds, checking with binoculars, telescope finders and phones, hoping that somewhere between the horizon and all that grey we might finally spot it.
During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon passes through Earth’s shadow. Instead of disappearing completely, it can take on a dark red or copper colour as sunlight filtered through Earth’s atmosphere still reaches the lunar surface. That was, of course, the view we had all hoped to see.
At around 8:50 pm the first people finally spotted the eclipsed Moon between the clouds. Totality was due to end at 8:52 pm. After waiting for most of the evening, we had barely time to catch the Moon while it was still completely inside Earth’s shadow. But at least we got the chance to take some photos.
