Lunar eclipse as seen from Cyprus

For once, I knew in advance that there was going to be a lunar eclipse last night. More importantly, it was supposed to start in the evening when I would still be awake. I might still have forgotten about it, if I hadn't seen this fairly amazing huge and beautiful full moon in the evening sky, just as I was pulling the curtains around 8.00pm:


I checked a couple of websites, which said that the eclipse would be visible in Europe and Asia, primarily - either of which could apply to Cyprus. They said it would start at 18.30 UT, which I gather is the new politically correct GMT. So I added a couple of hours, entirely forgetting that we're now in Summer Time. Which explains why, at 8.30, the moon still looked full, albeit rather higher in the sky (and less easy to photograph without camera shake):


Realising that I was an hour out in my calculations, I didn't look at it again until 9.30, by which time the eclipse had undoubtedly started:


I thought about it again at 9.50, and took this picture, holding the camera as still as I could:


I suppose I should have found a tripod, but it hardly seemed worth it just to capture a few pictures for my personal use. Still, I was quite pleased with that one.

I realised the moon was disappearing quite fast, so I only left it ten minutes before taking the next picture:


Being much more of a lark than a night owl, I don't like staying up much beyond 10.00pm if I can avoid it, but for the sake of posterity, I did take one more picture just after 10.15:


So much for astronomy. The last eclipse I wrote about was over five years ago, when Tim and I watched a partial solar eclipse.