Keith writes in: “I plan to be in Yosemite on the 20th of February and am interested in photographing the lunar eclipse. Do you have any more information on where it will be in the sky? Will we be able to see it from the valley?”
Well Keith, maybe. The event is set to start about 7:01 P.M. PST. Moonrise is at 4:32 P.M. PST. This puts the moon at about 62 degrees, well above Half Dome in the eastern sky. With a western location, maybe Tunnel View, this might be perfect for getting Half Dome and the moon in a really cool shot.
The moon should be at totality around 7:26 P.M. PST with the event coming to an end around 7:51 P.M. PST. You can use the graphic from NASA below as a guide to the stages. Keep in mind that you need to subtract 3 hours since the graphic is in Eastern Standard Time.
The reason I said “maybe” is this is still February and so far this is shaping up to be a wet, wet winter. There’s been good rain and snow for the last 3 weeks. Hopefully it’ll be a clear cold night but, no guarantees.
Good luck! Send us your photos!
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One response to “Photographing the Upcoming Lunar Eclipse”
Here’s the same image for Pacific time. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/image/TLE2008Feb21-PST.GIF
I plan to be at Mono Lake for the eclipse. Moonrise Azimuth will be at 76.6˚ from north, but I’m not sure if that’s true north or magnetic north. A friend of mine who is a programer at EROS made up a .kml file showing the line of sight from the South Shore Tufas across the lake using both true and magnetic north to plot the angle. It’s viewable in Google Earth, and I’d be happy to share it with anyone interested.
Edie