Holy Week Lunar Eclipse

The total lunar eclipse that graced the SW skies over Cedar Rapids, Iowa early Tuesday morning, April 15, 2014 was a spectacular one. After heavy rains amounting to over three inches on Palm Sunday moved on, skies cleared Monday evening allowing for good viewing. The clear skies in this case created unseasonably cold temperatures, and it was 26 degrees F with 18 degree wind chills in the photos seen above. The structure in the foreground is Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids. The top image is a single image of the moon at 3:06 AM, as it was just starting to emerge from totality. Accompanying it was the 0.96 magnitude star Spica and -1.43 magnitude planet Mars.  The middle image is a composite of five images with the upper right starting at 3:15 AM and the bottom right ending at 4:30 AM.