Update: Lunar eclipse visible from West Seattle – for a while

(Added: Photo by David Hutchinson, taken from Alki just before 6 am)
5:40 AM: Anybody else up watching? Took us a while to spot it through one of the trees across the street – we’re used to seeing moonsets over Vashon, but this is more a straight line over Blake Island. If you don’t have a view of it – here’s a webcast.

5:51 AM: Just a small lip of moon visible now. Saw a meteor while out on the corner watching.

6:22 AM: Clouds are obscuring it from here (north Upper Fauntleroy) – but they do appear to be fast-moving, with some holes, best as we can tell despite the street lights etc., so all hope may not be lost for reappearance, and your vantage point may be different! The timeline in the link above says totality will last another half-hour or so. (Here’s a direct link to the narrated webcast on slooh.com.)

6:40 AM: Still in the “total” phase till just before 7 am. Alki photographer David Hutchinson just shared a photo (thank you!) that we have added above, from “just a few minutes before 6:00 am, when the moon went behind a layer of clouds.” We’ve also received a reader note warning about frost-slippery roads this morning: “Coming home from watching the eclipse, I just almost got hit on Jacobsen as the car coming downhill slid across the center line into my lane. Please caution people to drive at safe speeds!”

7:11 AM: The sky’s getting light, and the clouds don’t appear likely to provide another peek at the moon (which is emerging from the shadow again), but it was cool while it lasted … Next total lunar eclipse visible from here, April 2014.

ADDED SATURDAY AFTERNOON: A few more photos – thanks! From Trileigh Tucker (click for a larger version – a few planetary/star pinpoints are part of the image):


From Craig, 5:16 am from the main Alki business district:

Emily Austin shared photos too:

33 Replies to "Update: Lunar eclipse visible from West Seattle - for a while"

  • LStephens December 10, 2011 (5:46 am)

    Pretty amazing! We’re so lucky to have a clear morning to see it.

  • cam December 10, 2011 (5:46 am)

    one of the best walks to work ever! clear skies and an eclipsing moon! makes getting up at 4am totally worth it

  • Brandonst December 10, 2011 (5:47 am)

    Yes! We’re watching! Wonderful that it’s so clear this morning.

  • Ken S. December 10, 2011 (5:54 am)

    Yup – I’m up. Great view from where I’m at! I guess it’s going to turn red soon, right?

    • WSB December 10, 2011 (6:00 am)

      Ken S – in our experience with middle-of-the-night moonset-viewing, it generally isn’t red till it’s closer to the horizon (or the mountaintops in this case). Not sure how far we’re going to get with that here, given that it will get light in an hour and a half or so …

  • whitestuart December 10, 2011 (5:54 am)

    Just took a peek- very clear – easy to see from the junction if you are up high . Hoping to see the RED MOON soon.

  • Ventana Construction December 10, 2011 (6:00 am)

    We got up at 5 with the kids. They just headed down to Lowman Beach for a better view.

  • Ken S. December 10, 2011 (6:04 am)

    looks like the clouds are blocking my view now anyways…

  • Mn December 10, 2011 (6:07 am)

    Unbelievable

  • zeesoo December 10, 2011 (6:09 am)

    ahh i wish i could see! i am in seattle and there are too many tall buildings…

  • AL December 10, 2011 (6:10 am)

    The moon is gone. Is it cloud or eclipse?

  • Ken December 10, 2011 (6:13 am)

    both :)

  • rockergirl5678 December 10, 2011 (6:14 am)

    The live feed is cool……thanks for sharing!

  • HV December 10, 2011 (6:14 am)

    Clouds rolled in mere minutes before totality. Watching from Alki Beach. Sad :(

  • Mike Lindblom December 10, 2011 (6:18 am)

    Claire and I just watched the last 25 minutes and also saw two shooting stars, and we think Mars deep on the low WSW horizon. Awesome!

  • K December 10, 2011 (6:19 am)

    it is not cloud. now it is now the total luna eclipse!

  • MMB December 10, 2011 (6:31 am)

    Hubby got up in time to see the shooting star, but I was a slug-a-bed and did not get up until 5:50. It was a nice sight to see after walking through the crispy grass.

  • Maria December 10, 2011 (6:42 am)

    We’re in Olalla and saw the totality AND shooting stars. So awesome! So worth getting up for

  • SWB December 10, 2011 (6:46 am)

    Can anyone see it? Can you give a rough compass point?

  • RikAnderson December 10, 2011 (6:53 am)

    From pov Newcastle Golf Course the fog obscured the view right at initial totality, just after 6:05.

  • LyndaB December 10, 2011 (7:08 am)

    Just so I’m not left out…

    I saw it, too! What a great experience! Bundled up and headed upstairs and outside. I missed the shooting stars, nuts!

    Back to bed now. :)

  • sam-c December 10, 2011 (7:16 am)

    watched from about 5:15 to 6 and then it disappeared behind trees/ clouds. fun to see even with just binoculars. kinda funny though- other than watching it progress through the hour, it doesn’t really look much different than the moon during its different phases any other old time.

  • April December 10, 2011 (7:35 am)

    great photo! thank you for sharing!

  • Trileigh December 10, 2011 (7:36 am)

    What a great experience! That meteor really was the icing on a very delicious cake (excuse the metaphor). A lovely start to the day!

  • Claire December 10, 2011 (8:50 am)

    Wow this is so amazing. Cloud cover blocked our veiw at about 5:45. This looks so awesome. :)

  • cranky westie December 10, 2011 (8:52 am)

    When is the city council going to do something about these damn elcipses? We should have a city wide referendum on all celestial shadow occurances and hold some public meetings about this. As a perpetually ticked off reader of WSB I find it my duty to complain bitterly about this and threaten to vote accordingly. Does anyone know McGinn’s official stand on elcipses? When will we get some clarity on this issue?

  • JH December 10, 2011 (8:57 am)

    That was awesome! Saw it for about 10 minutes until a cloud covered it. Well worth waking up for it!

  • datamuse December 10, 2011 (9:13 am)

    Highland Park clouded over too much for us to see very much–until then we were watching it from our bedroom window. :)

  • miws December 10, 2011 (10:36 am)

    cranky westie FTW

    .

    Mike

  • Marie December 10, 2011 (1:26 pm)

    Worth getting up at 5:30 to see it, and VERY cool to see parents bringing their kids in pj’s but bundled in jackets at Schmitz overlook hoping for an view through the clouds. Kids seemed happy as can be, hurrah parents for making the big effort!

  • Doogs December 10, 2011 (6:40 pm)

    Those are some great photos!! Love the reddish color. Any chance of listing the camera settings used for future eclipses?

  • Trileigh December 10, 2011 (7:09 pm)

    Doogs – I had to play around with the camera settings quite a bit to get some kind of balance between getting details to show up vs. graininess. I think I finally settled on ISO 1600, +0.3, 400mm, using a tripod and a timer. (Will check and will post again if it was substantially different.)

  • pam December 10, 2011 (8:25 pm)

    I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I was up writing. And the reward was getting to see the eclipse — so totally worth it. I’m really glad you posted these beautiful pics so I can share what I saw.

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