On August 27, 2026 a very deep (96.2%) partial lunar eclipse was visible from my driveway in Friendswood, Texas.

Since I had just used the SeeStar my amazing co-workers gave me as a retirement gift to make a video of the preceding total solar eclipse, I thought it would be fun to make a video of the matching lunar eclipse.

Solar eclipses have a paired lunar eclipse either two weeks before or two weeks after the solar eclipse (or sometimes both!).  The two week timing is because solar eclipses happen when the Moon is new and lunar eclipses happen when the Moon is full.  They occur together because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted relative to the Earth’s orbit around the sun, so the three bodies only “line up” when the Moon’s orbit crosses the Earth’s orbit, which happens twice a year.  There is a band of time around the time the Moon’s orbit crosses the Earth’s orbit where the three bodies come close enough to lining up that eclipses occur.  Depending on the timing of the crossing relative to the phase of the Moon, the lunar eclipse can be before the solar eclipse, after the solar eclipse, or both.

Developing clouds were predicted for the eclipse period, but the sky started out clear, and I was able to set up my SeeStar and get it focused on the Moon.  I started making a time lapse video and went back inside.  During the time lapse, several clouds drifted in front of the Moon; I cut those frames from the video.  When the max eclipse was about to occur, I went outside to have another look.  As I’ve seen before, the dynamic range of a camera does not match the dynamic range of the amazing human eye.  So the tiny sliver of sunlit Moon was visible in the images, but the remaining red Moon was not.  I adjusted the SeeStar exposure to try to better expose the darker part of the Moon.  As part of that, I tried to refocus the SeeStar, which was a mistake because I don’t think the focus was as good.  And at one point – oops – I way overexposed it.  Then the clouds rolled in, so I packed up the SeeStar and brought it back inside.

Near maximum eclipse, I texted several friends to make sure that they also got to go out and see it – living up to my motto “Find Wonder and Share It!”

Have you shared any wonder lately?