Here are some pictures of the Lunar Eclipse that occurred on the night of October 27, 2004.   I had to work late that day and was also delayed in getting my telescope setup by a small emergency that I had to take care of for a friend. ( They locked their keys in their vehicle!)  Consequentially, I did not get to start taking pictures of the eclipse until well after it had already got going.   

The pictures below I took of the event are the best three out the bunch in a photo-montage I created with Paint Shop Pro and a single best picture of the event.  Click on the pictures for an enlargement.

The digital camera I used for the last eclipse was on loan to someone and I had to borrow a Minolta 5MP camera from another friend of mine.   The pictures used to create the montage below were taken with it using a technique called Afocal Eyepiece Projection.   Essentially, the camera lens is placed close to the telescope eyepiece and focused at infinity.  I used a tripod to hold the camera still.   Most of the pictures were taken at 1600 x 1200 resolution with the camera set in manual mode.   Exposures ranged from 1/15 second to 4 seconds during totality.  I set the camera's ISO equivalent speed to 200. 

I decided to setup the scope in a parking lot at my favorite coffee shop.   I figured lots of my friends there would enjoy getting a peek at the lunar eclipse through a telescope bigger than what they can get at Wal-Mart!  The drawbacks of doing it there were less time to take pictures and lots of lights that caused lots of reflections and lens flares in some of the pictures I managed to take.