I took a few photos of last night's lunar eclipse. This one is from 2:27 am. It was a little hazy which affected the clarity of my shots but, at least, it wasn't as cloudy as was predicted. It was also a little foggy and all my equipment was lightly coated with moisture. Thankfully everything is weather resistant. On the positive side, at least it wasn't real cold. I'm a little disappointed in the quality of the image, but its better than nothing.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the sun's rays from striking the moon. Last night's lunar eclipse was the first to fall on the same day as the winter solstice in 372 years. But, otherwise, lunar eclipses are not particularly rare and actually come in clusters. There can be two or three during a period of a year or a year and a half, followed by a lull of two or three years before another round begins. The next total lunar eclipse is just a year away, December 10, 2011. Hopefully, the conditions will be better for photographing!

For a comparison of how sharp of a picture I was hoping to get, see my prior photo of the moon.