Photos from Total Lunar Eclipse – October 2014

In fact it’s been a week since my previous blog post. We’ve had the total lunar eclipse last Wednesday and observations from Hanoi were not so much disappointing, despite the inherent urban light pollution. In my case I was observing from the rooftop of our house in Dao Tan, Hanoi located close to the Lotte shopping center and didn’t manage to spot the totality of this eclipse due to aforementioned reasons.

The predicted localized timings were as follows according to http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2014-october-8

Therefore I was waiting on the rooftop as sun was setting and scrutinizing the surrounding with my pair of binoculars. Although the Moon was not seen in the sky at the times when it was supposed to be above the horizon, I was still waiting to to encounter the remaining part of this amazing natural phenomenon. Clock was ticking and it passed the threshold 18:22h -local time, when the full phase of the eclipse was supposed to end and there was yet no sign of Moon. As I mentioned before the urban city lights contributed to create atmospheric fog and block the torrents of photons that were being reflected from Moon. Then the skyscrapers in the city added to that by disguising the horizon and making it almost impossible to detect Moon as it slowly rose above the horizon.

Soon afterwards, around 18:30h- local time, Moon began to be seen and that kept me busy for a while. I’m sharing herewith some photos that I managed to capture during the remainder of this lunar eclipse. Please mind the quality of the photos as they’ve been taken by my mere iPhone which is not the best type of device for this kind of activity.

Above : As the eclipse begins to  be seen.. notice the light pollution.

Above : Some snaps taken during the course of the partial eclipse. Please note that some of them have different scales and hence the dimensions are not necessarily the same.

Enjoy and feel free to share if you have some eclipse stories 🙂