கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவு (Lunar Eclipse)

Life on earth is a miracle!!! Nature conspired a series of events that made life possible on earth. In addition, nature puts on a grand show every day/night for all of us. All you have to do is look up and enjoy. Since I missed last year's Total Lunar Eclipse due to clouds, I was desperate to watch this one. The next Total Lunar Eclipse is due only on April 15th, 2014.

The only problem for us in the US west coast was that the eclipse started at 4:45 AM :( Sheila told me NOT to wake her up so I went to bed without setting the alarm. Exactly at 4:30 AM, I woke up on my own, drank my tea and stepped in to the dark, cold backyard. I setup my telescope just in time to watch the beginning of the Eclipse :))  Right next to the telescope, I setup the camera on the tripod and switched back and forth between the telescope and the camera.

The following  fotos show the progress of the earth's shadow on the Moon:

 
  4:56 AM

4:59 AM

                                                                                                             

5:25 AM

5:28 AM

5:31 AM

5:59 AM

The following fotos were purposefully overexposed to bring out the golden/red shadow part of the Moon: 

5:29 AM

5:33 AM

5:48 AM

5:55 AM

 

5:58 AM

Total Lunar Eclipse started at 6:05 AM

6:05 AM

6:06 AM

Finally the Moon started setting behind the backyard fence, the Sun was rising up, the sky was getting more bluish and the Moon started fading out.

6:12 AM

Next Lunar Eclipse project:

Not sure whether the next Total Lunar Eclipse would be a morning eclipse like this one. If yes, I would love to capture the Eclipse over the Pacific in Torrey Pines Beach :)) 

Vedic Astronomy:

Finally, how could I end this post without referring to our Ancestors' astronomical and mathematical brilliance. They came up with precise calculations of the timings of the Solar and Lunar eclipses with the concept of Raaghu and Kethu. Here are sculptures of Raaghu with the Moon and Kethu :))

Raaghu

Kethu