More recently, on the 21st February, 2008, another lunar eclipse was visible from the UK and Europe early in the morning. However, the weather for this event was not as favourable with cloudy conditions across much of the UK (despite having a long period of clear weather in the preceding week!).

There will not be another lunar eclipse visible from the UK in its entirity until 2015 (though two will be partially visible with the eclipsed moon setting on Dec 21st 2010, and the eclipsed moon rising on June 15th 2011).

Here are some of the best images from the eclipse (if you view the gallery, make sure the post has the full width of the page to see it all – clicking the expand button or viewing the individual post):

[Show as slideshow]

Of course, nothing goes smoothly:

1. CCD dessiccant had (long) expired and when bringing the chip of the CCD down to temperature (-25°C), ice formed all over the chip. Solution: Bake the dessiccant canister in the oven for 4 hours at 175°C and then reinsert and let it dry out – I’m still waiting for the dessiccant to do its thing – I may even have to bake it again tonight to get it dry.
2. Focuser issues – This is so far unresolved – think it’s gonna need fixing as I can’t connect to it.

However, all was not completely lost. I adjusted the RA worm clearance on the Titan (much less backlash, but still loose enough not to bind and fry the motor), and I installed a demo version of PemPro to look at the periodic error on the mount. This measured out as about +7/-5 arcsec uncorrected, and with a very quick run through, I was able to get it down to +/- 2 arcsec. This is an excellent piece of software, and one I think I will be buying in the future – not to mention its ability to help polar alignment, and backlash correction settings.