It had been over a decade since I had the opportunity to see and photograph a total lunar eclipse. When January 20th dawned clear and cold, I realized that I might finally get another chance. 

I finished setting up around sundown, and took a break till the beginning of the eclipse. I used my Televue 85mm refractor, along with a 2X barlow lens and a field flattener.  My total effective focal length was 1610mm. Using some homemade parts (one of which was part of a wooden stake) I attached the telescope and camera to an old mounting.  Last of all, I cobbled together a system to warm the lens hood of the refractor, so the objective lens wouldn't fog up in the cold temperatures.

Before the eclipse began I took a few shots of the full moon for reference and checked my focus and exposure settings. Eclipses are challenging, because the light is constantly changing. My camera was set on manual.  I monitoring the exposures and adjusted the shutter speed as required.  The shutter speeds I used ranged from 1/800 sec to 4 seconds.

I watched as the moon started slipping into the earth's shadow.  Almost immediately clouds started rolling in. I had to shoot images in the gaps between the clouds. It was already about 22 degrees F when I began. That, along with a light wind, made it feel a little bitter. I had a bunch of layers on, so I never was really chilled.

It was a quiet night.  During the entire time I was outside I heard only the occasional snort of a deer. At times the sky cleared.  The winter constellations were beautiful.  Orion, Canis Major, Taurus, Gemini, Auriga, and Ursa Major all shone brilliantly.  Totality began at 11:41pm.  It's amazing how much darker the skies become during totality.  The Beehive Cluster in Cancer, only about 7 degrees away from the moon, was easy to see with the naked eye. I could pick out the Andromeda Galaxy low in the west. The view of the eclipse through binoculars was stunning. Unlike the total solar eclipse last August, there was plenty of time to relax and savor the ghostly, copper-colored moon.   Lit by the combined light of all the sunsets on earth, it made me forget about the cold.

Then it was over.  A bright rim appeared as the moon slowly exited the earth's shadow. I took more images of the partal phases, then called it a night.  When I covered the telescope and came back inside, it was 17 degrees F.

Sky Events for February 2019:

Mars moves from Pisces into Aries around the middle of the month. It's quite small in a telescope field of view, and on the 15th it's less than 6 seconds of an arc in apparent diameter.

Mercury moves into the evening sky this month.  It will become visible low in the western sky at dusk around February 12th.  It will gradually climb higher in the sky each day until it reaches greatest elongation from the Sun on February 26th. At that time is will be about 9 degrees above the western horizon.  It always helps to pick a spot that has a flat horizon when trying to spot Mercury. It's fun though, because you can see it's change in position from day to day.

Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is now prominent in the northeast.  All of the bright stars of Leo, the Lion, are visible now, including Denebola, the bright star at the tip of the Lion's tail.  Part of the constellation of Virgo is visible below Leo.  It's handy to know where Denebola is, because below it, if you imagine sliding down the Lion's tail, is the great Virgo cluster of galaxies.  Left of Denebola, on a line towards the handle end of the "big dipper," you will see the faint star cluster Mellotte 111, in Coma Berenices.  With a telescope, you can star hop or use a go-to mounting to find the barred spiral galaxy M91.  The faint constellation of Crater has now cleared the horizon.