Nice video, Joan. And yes, I too, thought the eclipse looked quite a bit darker than most. I observed both naked-eye and through my trusty old TeleVue Ranger. Apparently, a lot of us think so and an article on http://spaceweather.com/ today speculates that much of it may be due to the orbital 'perigee'. [Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado offers one reason: "Supermoon eclipses should be a bit darker. Because of its closeness to Earth, a supermoon passes deeper into the shadow of our planet."] A recent Chilean volcano may have also contributed. Kate, Aside from the S&T article I sent you earlier, with the diagram of Luna passing through our shadow, http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/get-ready-for-s... the Spaceweather article may explain the deeper shadow. We went up to the Larb Hollow overlook on Boulder Mtn and watched it rise over the Henry Mtns, beyond Capitol Reef. The partial (penumbral) phase had just begun and progressed as the moon rose up through thin cirrus clouds. It went behind some heavier clouds right after totality began and we could barely see it for about 20-30 minutes, though the Milky Way was clear and bright up above. Everyone else who was there gradually left, but I knew it would rise up above the clouds, and our patience paid off shortly. We watched the last 40 minutes of totality, using a small scope part-time, and after seeing the brighter penumbra begin to return, we slowly prepared to head home. The whole thing was about to end as we pulled in the driveway. Pretty nice. And it's nice to know you were down there in the park. I'll bet I know where. ;^) Lunar Linton -----Original Message----- From: Kate Magargal Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 6:13 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Last night's eclipse My husband and I were observing from a tucked away spot at Capitol Reef NP (we were going to go to Panorama Point, but boy was it crowded! good to see lots of eclipse watchers, though). I also noticed the moon was particularly dark. Even with basically no light pollution, I had to use averted vision to see much detail on the face of the moon during much of totality, and even then I could barely make out the maria. We pondered this quite a bit along with the placement on the moon's limb of both the last and first light. The 'extreme' darkening makes it seem like the middle of Earth's shadow must have passed over the moon, but the fact that the last light was at lower right and first at lower right indicates it was more the bottom of Earth's shadow. Maybe it's just that the other lunar eclipses I've seen weren't as total as this one, but I agree it really darkened the moon a lot! Anyone know why? k _______________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Joan Carman Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 11:52 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Last night's eclipse I was at the lunar eclipse watch at Harmon's in Draper with SLAS and 500-1000 of SLAS's closest friends. Truly a highlight was to watch the moon rise over the mountains in partial eclipse. "A first quarter moon in the east." Totally agree with Chuck, it was much darker than expected. Mentioned that to many people within earshot of my scope. Looking through a C-8 during early totality, no features on the lunar surface were visible. About 15 minutes into totality, features started to appear, but were darker than expected. Wonder how much atmosphere we were looking through made a difference. About 15 minutes into totality some features did appear. Hooked up my camera to the scope and struggled to find focus. Nothing to key into except the lunar edge. There was a hint of color to the unaided eye and photos taken by a variety of people show an orange to reddish hue. Certainly not the blood moon (except one photo Ryan has used on the SLAS facebook page, pretty thin blood on that one, but definitely red). About mid totality cirrus clouds moved it and almost obliterated the moon entirely, but they didn't last. SLC lucked out and got a visual treat last night. Wall Street Journal has a 60 second video of the eclipse. Nicely put together. http://www.wsj.com/video/rare-supermoon-lunar-eclipse-in-60-seconds/23E3E4BD... those of you, like Dave :( who missed it.http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy