Students and community members joined the crowd at the observatory on Friday night (10 February) to enjoy the penumbral lunar eclipse that was gracing our skies that evening. The moon made its way above the trees in the east by 6:15pm, a lovely full moon, so bright that it looked like floodlights had illuminated the soccer fields by the observatory. It was cold!  The thermometer hovered at 11°F and the wind was calm. As people gathered, there was a pulsing of people headed into the Chart House to stay warm, along with those coming back out to view the eclipse’s progress.

This was our first almost-clear evening in quite a while. The day before was the first “snow day” that the Academy had enjoyed in a long time! The new snowfall, well over 10″ deep, had ben plowed from the paths (THANK YOU to our facilities department!), allowing access to the Chart House and Kurtz Dome housing our 16″ SCT telescope. We also had a camera with zoom lens attached, and a pair of tripod-mounted binoculars for people to enjoy.

As predicted, clouds did start rolling in by 7:30pm. With the eclipse hitting maximum at 7:44pm, we had a good view of it before all was obscured. Two good photos below: One of the moon at maximum eclipse, and one of the moonlight causing a 22° ice halo and moondog. Both taken with a D810a and 300mm lens.