Jan 21st Early morning Lunar Eclipse.

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Sunday 20th. 23F, -5C. A mostly clear sky found me back in the observatory to have a look at the sun. I wore my walking boots and salopettes for greater comfort in the even colder conditions.

Despite being covered overnight, both objectives were dewed over after a cold night. I pointed them into the sun to warm up naturally. Nothing interesting was visible in white light nor H-alpha for the first hour.

While I was waiting for dew clearance I added a rectangular, black, camping mattress foam sunscreen. About a 30cm x 23cm, it is thick enough to be self supporting. First I marked it off center with a 2" EP fitting and then cut out the circle with scissors. It slipped over the first extension at the backplate to still allow me to reach the etalon tuning ring. It has transformed my viewing comfort after being "blinded" for so long.

I also checked some details in the H-a telescope. While checking the focus point I discovered the etalon is bathed in a hot beam from the objective. With a target at focus I was easily able to burn the black foam.

Have I accidentally reversed the D-ERF? Or is this infra red beyond the Baader filter's rejection band? This needs further attention! Can the PST etalon survive such heat? The D-ERF proved to be orientated correctly.

The seeing had improved at 12.30 CET. Revealing two proms. at my 2.00 in the binoviewers using 26mm EPs direct view. Further, less obvious proms on the opposite side of the disk at 8.00. I need to confirm right to left and up or down through the binoviewers. Thy don't change what the telescope is doing so I'll assume my view is normal astro telescope: Left and right reversed and inverted. East is West. North is South.

Dew on 180mm, 7" refractor lens as seen through the 2" star diagonal.

The temperature inside the open dome had reached 40F by 13.00pm with the outside temperature at 36F. A difference of 4F. There are no visible thermal effects on the limb at this time. On previous days there was obvious boiling at the limb.

Back after lunch at 14.25 and some thin cloud has arrived. Clouds more visible as bands in white light. Some faint markings visible at around 1.00 on the disk in H-a. Perhaps a darker filament. Difficult to be certain as I move the doughnut of sharpness [sweet spot] around while standing on tip-toe!

It is easy to see how the sun's average altitude has changed over a short time. Last week the chimney shadow was well up on the dome. This week it is down on the obs. wall. Even the shadow of the chimney pot is below the skirt.

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Tomorrow's Lunar Eclipse will not only be with the moon low in the sky but very likely to be clouded out. Total Eclipse is early morning but the later stages will be below the local, Western horizon.

From the DMI [Danish Meteorological Institute weather and climate website] All times CET! January 21st at. 03:36 the shadow from the earth begins to slide over the moon. From 5:41 am to 6:43 we have total moon eclipse. At 08:48 the moon will again be free of the shadow. The last 13 minutes, however, the moon will have gone down and is therefore no longer visible. [Google Translate with numerous corrections.]

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