LUNAR ECLIPSE, 2003

One evening last fall we went out to eat, and as we were driving home I looked up to see the moon shining full and bright and sweet down the street that runs in front of our house. It was a perfectly clear night, and the features of the moon were quite visable. But the moon was not a perfect circle. It looked, in fact, as if someone had taken a tiny bite out of the upper side.

After a minute I remembered that a full lunar eclipse was scheduled for that evening. The last one had been in the middle of the night, and I was the only person who stayed up to see the impressive event. But this one was early enough for the girls to share. So we quickly set up the telescope and my camera, and tracked the passage of the Earth's shadow across the surface of the moon.

I did not, regretfully, take a careful note of what time these pictures were taken. I clicked the shutter every ten minutes or so, but the camera moved on some of the photos, and they did not turn out all that great. But here, then, are the ones which did turn out well:

Helen E. Davis
back to My main page.