Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Solar and Lunar Eclipse Image Gallery

Ever since man's first appearance on this planet, eclipses have been regarded as both mystical and devine with some cultures, for example, associating a lunar eclipse with the imminent arrival of death, war and/or famine. Although the distance of the moon and sun from earth vary dramatically (400,000 vs 150,000,000 km, respectively), the apparent size of these two heavenly bodies is such that they give the impression during an eclipse, solar or lunar, to be virtually identical (ie. about 30 arc-minutes in angular size). A total eclipse represents the unique occurrence in space and time where the sun, moon and earth are perfectly alligned as three collinear points on the same orbital plane. When the collinearity is not perfect but one of these three bodies is slightly higher or lower in the plane, we have a partial eclipse. Of course, a solar eclipse occurs when the moon lies perfectly between the sun and the earth, thus eclipsing the solar disk. In contrast, a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth lies between the sun and moon and, thus, the moon is hidden by the earth's shadow.

Note: The moon began its exit from the umbral shadow approximately ten minutes prior to the rise of the full moon over Athens. The image below was taken from Philopappou Hill which lies southwest of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Due to my late arrival at Philopappou Hill, the moon was more than half way through its exit from the umbra.

Total Lunar Eclipse: 2011-12-10
Stage
P-1
U-1
U-2
Max
U-3
U-4
P-4
Description
Penumbra
(First contact)
Umbra
(First contact)
Umbra Complete
(Start of Totality)
Maximum
Totality
Penumbra
(End of Totality)
Penumbra
(Full)
Penumbra
(End)
Time (UT+2)
13:31:37
14:45:11
16:05:29
16:31:36
16:57:45
18:18:04
19:31:30
Az / Alt
20.67 ° / -27.13 °
36.91 ° / -20.43 °
51.77 ° / -09.83 °
56.03 ° / -05.84 °
60.08 ° / -01.64 °
71.49 ° / +12.31 °
81.35 ° / +25.84°

Image Details
Post-Totality Over Athens (TLE 2011)
Imaging Details
Body:
Moon

Mass:
0.0123 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
0.2719 x Earth

Distance:
397,107 km

Sidereal Rev:
27d 07h 43m 11s

Age:
14d 19h 29m

Diameter:
30.16'

Saros Cycle:
135

Magnitude:
Penumb+2.1860
Umbral+1.1061

Duration:
Penumb5h 56m 28s
Umbral3h 32m 17s
Total 0h 51m 08s
Date:
Dec 10, 2011
17:50:18 UT+2


Location:
Philopappou Hill,
Athens, Greece


Equipment:
Canon EOS 350D
Canon EOS EF 28-105 mm
    @ 105mm / f11


Exposure(s):
1 x 2.5 sec
ISO 200
RAW image format
3456x2304 image size
Manual Mode


Software:
Digital Photo Prof V2.1.1.4
Photoshop CS2


Processing:
RAW to TIFF (16-bit) Conv
Resampling
JPG Compression