Saturday morning saw us take on the challenge of carrying the 12 inch telescope up the Port Hills to Victoria Park in an attempt to help people understand the lunar eclipse phenomena and what they were seeing. We chose a location that we thought was readily accessible, but forgot to take into account the gates would be shut at that time of day (we'll learn for next time). So we set up on the side access road to the dog exercise area and were very shortly joined by around 100 people and a camera crew from Newshub.

There had been a lot of discussion in the media about the theoretical astronomical event of the selenelion, where both the eclipsed moon and the sun could be visible in either horizon. Whilst the theory might be correct, in practicality, there is no way this event would ever come to light, if you excuse the pun. A darkened, eclipsed moon against a brightening sky would mean the moon would become invisible at least 20 minutes prior to sunrise. However, despite clear skies overhead, ultimately the event was cut short (even before totality occurred) by a Nw'erly cloud bank being held back by the mountain range.

Despite that, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and took in the spirit of a beautiful morning and sunrise. The resulting article was well produced and included footage of people viewing the event through the telescope and concluded with a short interview from one of our Directors, Gary Steel.

Click below to see the report from Newshub