Astrophotography Without a Telescope - 34

The Lunar eclipse of 23rd March 2016:

Lunar Eclipse image copyright R.Powell

Prior to the event, I had no high expectations of seeing anything other than a Full Moon. In fact I was doubtful whether I would actually capture on camera any evidence of an eclipse at all. Before shooting, I looked with the naked eye and there was no evidence of an event.

The eclipse was penumbral (see Wikipedia diagram below), meaning that the Moon passed only through the peripheral (penumbral) part of the Earth’s shadow but not through the main shadow (penumbra). An observer on the Moon would have witnessed a partial eclipse of the Sun. 

My image was rather hurriedly taken at 10.42 pm, very close to the maximum eclipse, with my hand held Canon 60D camera, 600mm lens, 1/400th sec, f/6.3, ISO 100. 

However, the camera has definitely picked up the graduation of the penumbra across the disc. It shows that even a penumbral eclipse (which is not even a partial eclipse) can be caught on camera and in retrospect, I wish that I had taken a bit more care and set the camera up on a tripod. 

Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia