Last night's lunar eclipse was at first largely occluded by a light cloud layer, but around 5:15 PM the skies began to clear as the moon made its exit from Earth's umbral shadow. During this phase it appeared slightly coppery (perhaps "Mars Orange" or even umber, though some form of ochre is probably more apt), and more three-dimensional than usual, especially through binoculars. Once the moon passed out of the umbra into the penumbral shadow, the eclipse took the more familiar appearance of a bright sliver gradually increasing in area as shadow pulled away, until finally a normal full moon was exposed. Terrible photographs were taken with a standard unsteady camera, one through an unsteady pair of binoculars.
