This is a short report of the lunar eclipse on the morning of May 16th 2003. The pictures were taken with a Nikon coolpix 775, mounted on a Manfrotto tripod, placed in front of the eyepiece. The telescope used is a TAL 200K with a 32mm Televue Plossl eyepiece. I did not use any filters. All pictures have a resolution of 1600 x 1200 at the highest possible quality. The orientation and the sharpness of the picture were altered with image-processing software. I observed from the Netherlands 50.50N 5.45E, UT plus 2 hours. The Moon entered the shadow at 02h03m UT. At 03.14 UT was the start of totality. The rest of the eclips was not visible from due to the rising Sun.

1.This picture was taken at 02h08m UT, just a few minutes after the moon entered earth's shadow

2. This picture was taken at 02h14m UT

3. This picture was taken at 02h17m UT. The shadow seems to form a very straight line. This has something to do with the positioning of the camera in relation to the eyepiece. I think that number 4, taken three minutes later, gives a more realistic view.

4. This picture was taken at 02h20m UT

5. This picture was taken at 02h40m UT. I did not manage to get the moon into the center of the field of view. At the top a minor part is missing

6. This picture was taken at 02h58m UT. It is over-exposed, but it was the best I could do.

7. This picture was taken 03h07m UT. It already was getting lighter and lighter, and it got harder to take any decent pictures. I always got the eyepiece reflection on the pics.