Last month’s “total” lunar eclipse was only 95% total as seen from here in Arizona, but I thought I’d give it a shot with my 10 year old Samsung Galaxy S9. Normally I’d have used my Canon EOS 20D with a telephoto on a tripod, but at the time of the eclipse it was still a stifling 110°F outside and I really didn’t want to deal with those temperatures to set up all the equipment. Besides, I’d previously captured a lunar eclipse in nice detail using my Canon. So I decided to continue experimenting with my phone camera, knowing full well the results would be less than ideal.
I’ve experimented with my phone camera for astrophotography on other occasions and, not surprisingly, even with a tripod, the results are always a compromise between convenience and quality. Though for terrestrial time-lapse nature photos it has worked quite well. But my Galaxy S9 only has a digital zoom, and for astrophotography the images get a bit “fuzzy” (as you can see) with magnification.
On August 27, as often happens, the Moon rose from behind Gavilan Peak, delaying its actual apparition by close to an hour. The Moon moves through the sky with a speed of around 0.25 degrees per minute — that’s half the Moon’s diameter every minute, so depending on exactly where the Moon breaks the horizon, its actual appearance can be delayed by up to 2 hours by the mountain. The left panel in the composite shows the sky brightening just before it appeared. I was hoping to get an image with a saguaro cactus silhouetted against the Moon, but alas, it rose over a relatively barren part of the slope.
So I waited until the rising Moon was fully visible to get my first image (center panel). The illuminated part of the lunar disc is actually already in the Earth’s penumbra, but it’s still too bright to see the dimmer orangish umbra. The umbra only shows as a darkened patch on the lower left.
Finally, at 9:12 pm, the Moon reached maximum umbral coverage (right panel) with 95% of the disc displaying the classic orange tint of a total eclipse. It looks like less than 95% because the thin strip of penumbra that remains is bright enough by contrast to flare into the umbral shadow and beyond the lunar disc — an effect related to the old optical system in the Galaxy S9. Newer phone cameras have software that can compensate for that. Still, the orange tint of the umbra’s shadow shows nicely, albeit with further loss of detail due to lower light levels.
The next fully total lunar eclipse for Arizona won’t happen until June 26, 2029, and that will likely also be a warm evening. If you want to see the full schedule, including solar eclipses, for Arizona or other locales, check out:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/arizona.
You’ll see that, as with the August 27 lunar eclipse, all lunar eclipses are visible over a wide area. Solar eclipses, by comparison, are only visible over a narrow range of latitude and longitude. You’ll probably see multiple lunar eclipses before you see a solar eclipse — unless you’re willing to travel.
Next Week in Sky Lights ⇒ Glaciogenic Flooding