Biting the moon on New Year’s Eve

Partial Lunar Eclipse
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew

Object Name: Partial Lunar Eclipse
Object Type: Lunar
Location: York, UK
Date: 31st December 2009

In the UK, New Year’s Eve coincided with a tiny partial lunar eclipse. However, this was my first such event since catching the astronomy bug, so I was keen to see it. The weather was mixed, but by the time I had the scope out (18:37UT)(150mm f8 Dobsonian, 25mm eyepiece) the event was underway with a penumbral shadow visible on the south-eastern portion of the moon. Clouds obscured the view for most of the time but there were enough breaks to give a decent view of the Umbra at about 19:20UT, until about 19:45UT, when the clouds obscured the view completely.

I made my sketches using graphite pencil on white paper, and scanned the images, and inverted them to give the naked-eye aspect, with north at top.

A happy new year to all at ASOD!
Peter