The March 3 total lunar eclipse has been generating some buzz. Unfortunately the only totality I experienced was totally missing it. By 6am the moon had set in my location – at 05:57 per Sky Safari to be exact. I could have gotten up an hour earlier to catch a partially eclipsed view but, as previously established by Nova Sagitarii, I can be a bit of a “slug-a-bed”.

Those further west had more convenient viewing opportunities and I’ve seen some good reports and images of the eclipse. Michael E. Bakitch has an excellent observing report over at Astronomy.

I can recall observing two total lunar eclipses in their entirety. The most recent one was in September of 2015, during which I was able to watch the entire event and photograph a sequence from the penumbral eclipse to totality. Prior to that, it had been nearly twelve years since my first complete lunar eclipse viewing in November, 2003. The photographs from that eclipse can be seen in this post on the Easter weekend 2015 eclipse.

According to the eclipse list at Time and Date, the next potential total lunar eclipse visible in North America looks to be in June 2029. Three years isn’t so long. It’s just a few times around the Sun.

-Dave

Original content copyright 2026 by David Philips. All Rights Reserved. This post may contain links to affiliate sites; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Total lunar eclipse sequence on September 27, 2015. Photos by David Philips.

We had clear skies for Sunday night’s lunar eclipse and it was quite a show. I was able to photograph a sequence from umbra to totality lasting about 2 hours.

The photos were taken from my back yard with a digital SLR attached to a 5″ refractor at prime focus. Exposures ranged from 1/250 second at ISO 100 to 1/3 second at ISO 6400. With the exception of the last image, the bottom half of the sequence are blended exposures.

-Dave

Original content copyright 2015 by David Philips. All Rights Reserved. This post may contain links to affiliate sites; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

I missed Saturday morning’s lunar eclipse due to being clouded out in Massachusetts, though had it been clear very little of the Moon would’ve been covered as most of the eclipse occurred after moonset on the East coast.

I’ve only observed one total eclipse; it was November 8, 2003. I remember it because I spent about 2 hours standing out in the cold night with my camera. Here’s a composite of my attempts to photograph it:

Total lunar eclipse on November 8, 2003.

Matt Wedel was able to observe this weekend’s eclipse from California and has posted some nice photos over at 10 Minute Astronomy.*

*Taken with a 60mm refractor, no less.

-Dave

Original content copyright 2015 by David Philips. All Rights Reserved. This post may contain links to affiliate sites; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.