Easter Rabbit Moon Flies a Kite Over Maui
Aloha!
Eyes turned to the sky early this morning on Maui for the shortest total lunar eclipse of the 21st Century. This is due to the Moon passing through the edge of the umbra instead of the center where the circular diameter of the Earths shadow would be widest. The maximum time for totality (when the Moon passes into the umbra) can be up to 1 hour 40 minutes so the umbral portion lasting only a little more than 4 minutes is a short one. The time of partial eclipse this morning made for a beautiful transition across the lunar surface of darkness and then totality. As I always see a rabbit in the Moon I thought maybe the Easter Rabbit Moon has a lot to do getting all those eggs hidden and no time for a long performance, though it was still a great show!
This is a 7×50 binocular view sketch during totality. The Rabbit in the Moon appears to be flying a kite asterism which seemed fitting for the spring occasion of the season.
Happy Easter!
Cindy (Thia) L. Krach
Eclipse time 12:16-3:45HAST
Umbral Phase 1:58-2:03 HAST
Maui, HI
Black Strathmore Artagain paper
Conte Crayon & x colored pencils, white charcoal pencil, brush technique to apply colors
Contrast adjustment in Photoscape
Wow, Cindy!!! You caught it with some nice field stars in a cool asterism. Did you get any identifiers on a couple of those stars? With Binos it probably wasn’t possible to get R.A. & Dec. but you got the TIME and we can search for it in SkySafari. You got the “rabbit.” Although I haven’t been able to do that, I say its a great way to imagine the configuration of the Meres. And that little bit of light shine on the edge. Great! You must have had to work fast. Very strong presentation and showing a lot of work! Keep it up! S. McG.
Happy Easter for you Cindy and please, share other sketches like this one ! Your sketches are so great. And specialy this one because here in France we were un able to catch this eclipse…
Michel
Hello Cindy,
Very impressive capture of the brief totality.
I was thinking that you would be well placed to view this lunar eclipse.
Excellent capture.
Frank 🙂
Thanks everyone, its was a fun surprise to see the “kite”. During the partial phase there was also a beautiful 22* Moon halo around the moon, the side of brightness have the strongest halo.
Steve, thats 38 Vir as the brightest star to the NW in the kite string, and the most eastern placed star in the kite is 48 Vir.
Michel, sorry you missed this one and thank you for your kind comments
Frank, it was almost directly overhead to the south. I have to laugh as I planned for an over the ocean sketch that didnt materialize!
Wow, what an incredible sketch!!! You never cease to amaze me. We were clouded out over here in San Antonio, Texas :'(.
Happy belated Easter,
John E.
Thanks very much John, sorry clouds got in the way on your end
Cindy