Ending the year with an eclipse…

So, here we are then – 2010! There are no huge, spinning space stations, no Moon- or Mars Bases, nothing like that. Oh well.

2009 went out with lots of bangs and flashes here in Kendal, as fireworks whizzed and wheezed up from gardens in all directions, but several hours earlier there was another light show in the sky, one that, I fear, despite my own best efforts to publicise, only a few people actually saw: a partial lunar eclipse.

The eclipse began at around 7pm, as the Moon started to creep into Earth’s shadow; the bottom right of the Moon’s brilliant disc began to show a darkening, as if a stain was creeping across it, and by 7.15 the Moon looked like this…

The eclipse was clearly visible to the naked eye – and looked much more impressive than I’d expected, to be perfectly honest! – but the view through my telescope was beautiful, with subtle colouring, shading and detail visible within the shadowed area that simply wasn’t visible to the naked eye. I showed the eclipse to a few passers-by, people scurrying and scrunching across the snow-covered field on their way to or back from meals, takeaways or off-licences, and they all loved the view. Of course, Stella was there too, and despite the cold – and it was ***** freezing! – enjoyed seeing the eclipse…

We even managed to project the eclipsed Moon this time! Okay, so it’s not a brilliant image, and it’s not going to win any photo awards, but I think it’s fun…

Bumping up the magnification a bit rewarded me with this view…

By 7.30 the eclipse was past its peak, but still looked pretty gorgeous through the telescope…

I headed in before the eclipse ended because it was just so, so cold, but I was more than happy with the photographs I took, and with managing to cram a little bit more Outreach into the final few hours of 2009 🙂

So, that was it, 2009. What will 2010 bring? Maybe I’ll write about that later, when I get back from work, if I have time. But it looks like poor Spirit is facing a very tough time as this new year dawns, and I have real worries that she’s just not going to get out of Troy, her soft sand trap. We’ll just have to cross our fingers and wait and see. In the meantime, I’ve just noticed my blog has clocked up more than 150,000 views, so I’d like to thank everyone for stopping by my little home on the web, and wish you all a very Happy New Year! 🙂