October 8, 2014 Total Lunar Eclipse in the Philippines
A glimpse of tonight’s ‘Blood Moon’ amid cloudy skies as seen from Montalban, Rizal. Image was taken a few minutes after totality.
Yesterday (Oct. 8, 2014), skywatchers across much of the world, had the chance to see another ‘blood red moon’ as the moon passes behind the Earth and into our shadow. This alignment usually occurs only once every couple of years.
In the Philippines, maximum eclipse occured at 18:55 PST (06:55 P.M.) in the eastern sky.
Cloudy skies and rain due to the presence of Super Typhoon Ompong (Vongfong) within PAR threatened to spoil this spectacular event. The weather outlook for the day doesn’t make it conducive for an unobstructed viewing. We watched from 5:30 pm to 9:10 pm in mostly cloudy skies. But luckily, we did get good breaks and saw the totality and egress when the cloud thinned at times and the rain held off.
Following are some of the images I took using my Canon Powershot SX40 HS and Nikon D3200 dslr. I will post more photos soon.
Montage of 12 photos showing the various stages of last night’s total lunar eclipse
‘Blood Moon’ over Rodriguez, Rizal
A Bite Out of the Strawberry Moon
A large cumulonimbus cloud was covering the moon until eclipse maximum.
I was lucky to have witnessed the partially eclipsed moon in the eastern sky last night despite a thick cloud cover and a chance of a thunderstorm.
The June 2012 full moon is called the Strawberry Moon (according to the Farmer’s Almanac)
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, “because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June, full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry”, hence the name.
Because of this, it seemed as if the shadow of the Earth that covered the moon during the eclipse is a small bite out of the Strawberry Moon.
Shown below is a composite image of eight separate photos showing the phases of last night’s partial lunar eclipse beginning at 7:32 pm PHT as seen from Marikina City, in mostly cloudy skies.
Yesterday’s weather had been winding us up all day, with nearly 100% cloud cover from dawn to dusk. Fortunately, we did get good cloud breaks which allowed glimpses of the Moon.
By the way, I observed this event with my fellow UP AstroSoc member and favorite observing buddy, Bea Banzuela from the rooftop of their house located in Barangka, Marikina City.
Tomorrow, a rare transit of Venus across the Sun’s disk will surely entice a lot of sky viewers again. It is an event that you would not want to miss!
Clear skies!
My Total Lunar Eclipse Montage in Universe Today
Didn’t know that one image of mine got featured in Universe Today last October 12. 😀 Click here to view the article.
Thanks, Universe Today!
Journey to the Stars 