This was the only total lunar eclipse for 2010 and the last until 2014 for North America, but the skies cleared and a few local amateur astronomers got together for the night’s observations. Kelly Hawes, Larry Kelley and Wesley Hunt, all of Seadrift, got together with telescopes, binoculars and camera equipment on the Seadrift Bayfront.   The night was cool and clear with little to no breeze making, it excellent for photography of the night sky. There were many targets to observe including the planet Jupiter, meteors, nebulae, and globular clusters.

At approximately 1:00 a.m. a noticeable change started on the moons limb (edge) as the sun, earth and moon lined up, blocking the sun’s reflection from the moon. The moon started to turn grey from one side to the other over a period of an hour, watching as the terminator (shadow) line moved as if to see all phases of the moon at one time. As the terminator slowly moved across the face of the moon a red hue began to appear , getting more red as the moon became totally eclipsed.   During the total eclipse the sky became once again very dark as the stars began to appear; the Milky Way belt glowed as if there was no moon; the eclipsed reddish moon gave the night sky a beautiful and eerie neon affect as 3:00 a.m.  began the whole process in reverse.

Wesley Hunt and Kelly Hawes are both members of the University of Houston @Victoria, Astronomy Club and members of the Planetary Society.