Finally a TOTAL lunar eclipse visible in Europe, especially East Europe. But it was a tricky lunar eclipse, because here in Stockhoml the moon rose at sunset, while already being 100% eclipsed. Which made it impossible to see the moon. It took a whole hour, when the moon VERY FAILTY became visible.

We where also super lucky regarding the weather. It was almost entirely clear, no clouds and NO FOG. PRevious predictions called for overcast weather... Which turned out into the exact opposite. Interesting, how models and prediction more often fail than not.

Sal and I went to one of the hills relatively near by, and went up onto the top of Fagersjötoppen hill. The others are called Hökarägentopp (which is the highest with 103 meter), and Högdalstoppen, which is the most common and is right above the Högdalen metro train depot.

We chose the middle one, which i had never visited. And it was an absolutely lovely place !! Albeit the trees did obscure the view towards the city - but not towards the moon rising in the ESE.

Sigma SPORT 60-600 mm lens

I had my Canon EOS R6 and a big sturdy tripod with me, together with the Sigma SPORT 60-600mm ƒ4.5-6.3 lens. One that i have never taken out of the house (imagine that *LOL*). But i thought it was ideal because i could also capture more normal shots (at 60mm), as well extreme telephoto shots of the moon (600 mm).

Nevertheless, when the sky was getting darker and darker, it was increasingly difficult to set exact sharpness of the moon, due to that it was very weak shining in reddish colors. The lens itself on top, was only ƒ 6.3 which swallowed a lot of light - making exact manual focus almost impossible to judge.

A pity, because the focus is sometimes a tiny notch off. Or the exposure time was too long, so the moon moved already through the image (which often happens in a total eclipse of the moon, due to that it is so dark). Yeah, it was really dark this time... one of the darker total moon eclipses.

Nevertheless, for lovely amateur photo impression, I did a nice job - and many photos turned out lovely. Neither less nor more.

The image above of Sal

made with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, shows the red moon - but in reality, it was much, much darker to the naked eye. And the sky too was a notch darker. Photos tend to show things brighter and more colorful compared to what the naked eye perceives. Pretty common in order words (and here I mean without exaggerating the color sliders in Photoshop)