Rocket in the Dawn, Shadow on the Moon

8/29/2026. A well-timed rocket launch and a deep lunar eclipse! That's the ticket. If I was not thrilled by these highlights of the week, they were at least enough to get me outside under the stars where I hoped to have some fun. And I did.

SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 up the eastern seaboard at 5:30 AM on the 25th, 80 minutes ahead of sunrise. The rocket hit daylight 5.5 minutes into flight, after which it produced an excellent show up here, the best I've yet seen. There are several good photos in hand, but I don't want to burn too much of my bandwidth and your patience, so I'll be selective. The color image is a single frame as the plume dropped into the morning haze. The B/W is a stack of six sill frames to bring out fainter and more subtle tones. All the images were shot using a Sigma 105mm F1.4 lens wide open on a Canon R6 at ISO 12,800, with exposures of 1/40 of a second.

Click any image for a closer look.

The weather for this month's nearly total lunar eclipse was touch and go. For a week before The Day, the forecast changed, and in the end the weather was better than promised. The sky cleared earlier than predicted, briefly clouded over with fast-moving broken overcast for dramatic effect, and then cleared completely in plenty of time for the deepest phase. I used the Canon R6, usually at ISO 1600, the 400mm F2.8 Nikkor, with and without the TC-301 extender, and carried the kit on the Star Adventurer mount.

In preparation for clearer skies, I've rebuilt and refreshed the battery pack I intend to use with the Wave 100i and its new controller, but I have yet to put the revised kit through its paces. The prospect of clear autumn skies should be inspiring even as an assortment of varied challenges is... challenging. Stay tuned.

:: top ::