Super Blue Blood Moon - Lunar Eclipse, 2018 January 31.

The Total Lunar Eclipse on 2018 January 31 is well under way with the Penumbra covering the whole Moon but here, the Umbra has just made contact with the Moon.  This image was taken with my Canon 6D attached to my Celestron EdgeHD 8 inch telescope (F/10), using 1/2000 seconds at ISO 800.

This image was taken shortly before the Umbra entirely covered the Moon and is the result of an HDR combine of 5 images taken in rapid succession, again with my Canon 6D on my C8.

This HDR combine of 5 images was taken partway through the total phase with the Moon entirely covered by the Umbra.

2017 August 21 total eclipse - the sunspot groups.

These images show the sunspot groups that were visible on the face of the Sun during the partial phase of the 2017 August 21 total eclipse.

The first image was taken on August 20, 2017, the day before the total solar eclipse with my Canon 70D attached to my 8 inch EdgeHD telescope.  The two sunspot groups include the group near center and another group coming around the east side of the Sun.  The exposure was 1/1000 seconds at ISO 200, f/10.

This image was taken after the end of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.  It shows the two sunspot groups visible during the eclipse.  The image was taken with my Canon 70D attached to my 8 inch EdgeHD telescope with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at ISO 200, f/10.

This is a closeup of the central sunspot group cropped from the above image with a little sharpening and brightness stretching to enhance the appearance a little.

This is a closeup of the sunspot group on the eastern limb of the Sun, just a couple days from making its initial appearance on the eastern limb.  I cropped this from the above image and applied a little sharpening and brightness stretching to enhance the appearance a little.

The Crescent Moon

Last Saturday night I set up my Celestron 8 inch EdgeHD telescope in my back yard.  I attached my Canon 70D with a 0.7x focal reducer (so I could fit the entire Moon on my APS-C sensor) and took some photos of the Moon.  Here are a couple, processed somewhat.

This first image used an exposure of 1/50 seconds at ISO 400.  I used an unsharp mask to sharpen the image.

This image was obtained with an exposure of 1 second at ISO 400.  Along with an unsharp mask, I stretched the image quite a bit to bring out the Earth-shine lit dark side of the Moon.  You can see some mountains over the southern limb of the Moon as well as a few stars in the sky around the Moon.

Tonights Moon

I set up my Celestron 8 inch EdgeHD today on the off chance I might be able to see the Falcon 9 Jason 3 launch from Vandenberg this morning.  I didn't (except for the live feed on the web) but I did test out my 0.7x focal reducer on the Sun (with solar filter) and then after the Moon rose a bit later, I slewed over to take a look at it.  The first photo below is from about sunset while the 2nd one was taken earlier in the afternoon with the image in bright blue daylight.

This image was taken with an 8 inch f/10 EdgeHD telescope with my Canon 70D with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at ISO 400.  I applied an unsharp mask to sharpen the image a bit. 

This image was taken earlier in the day in bright blue skies with the same setup and an exposure of 1/1600 seconds at ISO 400 with similar use of an unsharp mask.  Seeing was less steady.