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We had a very successful night with the full eclipse and a grazing occultation.
A group of us set up our equipment 2 klms west of Westbury on Deviation Road - a quite "country lane" giving us uninterrupted views with very dark skies. We were fortunate that the clouds cleared just on the commencement of totality and gave us a cloud free night from then on.
The eclipse was spectacular as everyone has commented. During the total eclipse the Milky Way was visible in all its splendor which added to the experience.
The spot we had chosen was right on the path for the grazing occultation of the 6.7 mag star 132 RG. So during the total eclipse we were treated to seeing the moon steadily approach this star. As they approached the colour contrast was quite beautiful with the yellowish star set against the reddish hues of the moon. The grazing occultation was set for approx 15 minutes after the end of eclipse totality and fortunately it was on the part of the limb still fully in the Earth's shadow.
The grazing occultation yielded 4 "off-on" blinks. This was my first successful grazing occultation observation. So, I came away quite pleased.
Cheers
Steve.
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