Cloudy eclipsed moonrise

Two weeks after seeing a partial solar eclipse at sunset, the full moon rose eclipsed.  Unfortunately, it was a very cloudy day.  While others watched the sky from the catwalk of the UH 88-inch telescope, I hiked out to the true summit of Mauna Kea, and for a little while was completely surrounded by clouds.

As the clouds cleared, I got a few photos, but until I got home, I didn't even realize I had captured a thin sliver of moon coming out of the eclipse in the cloudy twilight.

On my way down the mountain, I found clearer skies, and took one more photograph late in the eclipse.

Partial solar eclipse into sunset

A couple nights ago, noted amateur astronomer David Levy (as in Shoemaker-Levy 9, one of 21 comets he's discovered or co-discovered) gave a talk at the local university campus about his love for astronomy, finding comets, and his new hobby, chasing eclipses.

Not coincidentally, yesterday afternoon there was a partial eclipse of the setting sun visible from the top of Mauna Kea, so a few of us from the Institute for Astronomy took David to the summit to see it.

We were joined by local resident Steve O'Meara, who is perhaps best known for photographing volcanoes for National Geographic, but has also authored multiple astronomy books.  Steve graciously lent me a piece of mylar to shoot through, since I didn't have any proper solar filters for my camera at the time.

In this group shot from the AstroDay Institute, David is sitting, Steve O'Meara is at the right, and I'm the one in the ash-colored hoodie.  On the left are some students from the University, who had been observing the eclipse from near their 24-inch telescope.