Lunar eclipse from a backyard in Washington

February 20, 2008 marked a special day for Washington residents. It was a cool and clear night with the stars and other celestial objects visible to looked at with wonder and amazement.

After getting off work I made it the evening plan to pull out the telescope and binocular to gaze at a wild wonder of a Lunar Eclipse that would be visible in the eastern sky. The night did not start off with a lot of hope since the clouds rolled it and nothing could be seen, pretty typical this time of year. But as the night continued, the clouds lifted and it was perfect from the backyard to view the celestial event.

My roommate and I both took turns with the binoculars and the telescope to see the full sequence. It is a hobby in which I really enjoy and one that has taken me all over the state. But my favorite spot is from the top of Mt. Pilchuck in the Cascasde Mountains or farther down the Mountain Loop Highway near Monte Cristo. From those locations there is zero light polution so the millions of more objects are viewable, even with a small telescope or binoculars.

A friend in Utah captured a bunch of images from a website broadcasting a live feed of the lunar eclipse and put them into a Java application to sequence them together. That did not work to well with the website so it has been made into .mwv for easy viewing.

Download: Lunar Eclipse Video (click to open or “right click” and “save target as” to save to computer)

Some other objects visible in the sky that night where Saturn, Mars, the constellation Orion and the Andromadea Galaxy. There are more coming this month and if you would like to see more events or objects like these pick up a Sky & Telescope magazine or a magazine with some easy to read star charts, or download them and print for free here.