Total Lunar Eclipse 2004
With Kris Koenig, Anita Berkow, Cathy Ishida, Mike Connelley, Dave Brennen and Dan Birchall
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Two images taken by friends, depict a partially eclipsed moon in the shadow of Mauna Kea (left), and the diffraction rings of a glory at the anti-solar point (right). The shadow of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is seen projected in the fog, to the right of the glory.
The weather did not look so good at times, but the trip up to the summit of Mauna Kea was well worth the effort. The moon rose above the horizon around 5.37 pm, totally eclipsed, but unseen by us due to cloud cover. Around 5:50 or so, we could detect a sliver of light emerge above the haze as the moon crossed the umbra and emerged into sunlight. The movie is 6MB, and may take some time to load, notice the UH88 silhouette projected onto the fog before the sun set, casting a shadow of the mountain in the distance, while a glowing moon rises through the mist. You can even detect a "Glory", or colored diffraction rings around an anti-solar point - where the shadow of the observer's head is, which in this case, is the dome of the UH88 telescope. The image on the right is courtesy of Kris Koenig, visiting to shoot an educational video series featuring astronomy in Hawaii and other observatories around the world
Hawaii Tribune-Herald front page, Thursday, October 28, 2004