December 21, 2010 by David K. Sutton
Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse
Last night I braved the cold and the early morning hours to witness the first lunar eclipse that coincides with the winter solstice since December 21, 1638. If you missed it, you will have to wait until 2094 for the next time it will happen on the winter solstice. So, basically if you missed it last night you missed it for good! Given that I fancy myself a photographer you would think that I would have had this all planned out but I actually didn’t even intend to take photos until I was outside looking at it and made a last minute decision to grab the tripod, camera and long lens. And the resulting photos are a product of that last minute decision. They aren’t horrible but they could have been much better.
So did you check out the eclipse last night? If so, please share your experience with a comment. If not, you can see what you missed with the photos above. Some more information: The next lunar eclipse viewable within the continental U.S. will be April 15, 2014. The total time for the eclipse last night was 3 1/2 hours. Some observers last night had a better glimpse at the Ursid meteor shower due to the darkened moon.
