The Blood Moon Eclipse is upon us & the SET III Winter Challenge “The Pearls of Winter.”

Tonight’s rare "Black-Sky Window" and Tactical Deep-Sky Hunting during the Return of Light.

Tonight, we're sky-hunting through a rare celestial window. For those in the Western U.S. and across the Eastern Pacific, the clock is ticking toward an incredible Total Lunar Eclipse tonight, as we cross midnight on March 2nd-3rd.

So too, the season is shifting. As we embrace the Return of Light with the Equinox on the 20th and 21st, we renew our challenge of finding those last faint fuzzies of the fading winter sky — these are cosmic gemstones, not sprawling objects requiring well-planned mosaics, but long exposures at what appear to be empty patches of night sky, only to reveal their presence by collecting hour after hour of gas light, literally!

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But for a DWARFer, this isn’t just a moment to watch the moon turn to copper. It is a tactical opportunity. When the Earth’s shadow swallows the lunar glare, the sky doesn’t just get dark—it becomes a “Black-Sky Window.” For 90 glorious minutes of totality, the faint photons of these distant gemstones can finally reach your sensors without the interference of our closest neighbor.

If you are shooting the eclipse with an SLR or you have a 2nd DWARF around, you can use this dark time opportunity to have your 2nd or 3rd gear hunting one of the fainter Set III “Pearls” like ABELL 31 while the sky is at its absolute darkest.

The Tactical Window: Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse

The action begins past midnight tonight. Whether you are running the wide-field mosaic power of the D3 or the high-resolution “sniper” optics of the mini, this is your time to hunt.

• The Mission Briefing: Check your local totality timings here via Time and Date.

• The Data Stream: EclipseWise Technicals and the Official NASA Eclipse Path PDF.

Our DWARFVISION SkyGuide has it all - Capture tips and links on our site

(Best viewed on a MAC/PC):

Totality Timings (Your Black-Sky Window):

• Miami/EST: Partial Begins 4:50 AM, Totality 6:04 AM – 7:02 AM (Moon sets during totality).

• New Orleans/CST: Partial Begins 3:50 AM, Totality 5:04 AM – 6:02 AM.

• Los Angeles/PST: Partial Begins 1:50 AM, Totality 3:04 AM – 4:02 AM, Ends 5:16 AM.

• Honolulu/HST: Partial Begins 11:50 PM (Mar 2), Totality 1:04 AM – 2:02 AM, Ends 3:16 AM.

Set III: “The Pearls of Winter.”

To celebrate this cosmic double-feature, we are officially releasing our latest Hidden Gems. Visit our official Winter Challenge List to access the interactive sky atlas (Stellarium) links for the precise location and timing for your local coordinates, and to deep-dive into the history of each of these celestial objects.

Shoot these new targets now till March 31st - The moon window is from March 11 - 25th:

• T27 - M81 & M82 (Ursa Major): SHOWPIECE: A monumental deep-sky galaxy duo featuring a majestic, winding spiral and its scarred, cigar-shaped companion, caught in a gravitational tug-of-war that ignites brilliant starburst activity.

• T28 - Hubble’s Variable (Monoceros): SPECTRE: A shimmering, fan-shaped reflection nebula that acts as a celestial “light show,” where shifting dust shadows from the central star R-Monocerotis create a haunting, ever-changing glow reminiscent of a ghostly comet frozen in deep space.

The Meduca Planetary nebula - Dwarf mini - Duoband - 60sec x 4hrs @60 gain.

• T29 - Medusa Planetary (Gemini): SPECTRE: A haunting, braided planetary nebula—one of the largest—of serpentine filaments weaving a complex web of red and blue, echoing the legendary tresses of its namesake as it slowly dissolves into the interstellar medium.

• T30 - Leo Triplet Galaxies (Leo): SHOWPIECE: A spectacular three-for-one galactic portrait featuring two high-contrast spirals and the “Hamburger Galaxy,” a massive edge-on disk with a thick dust lane, all captured in a single frame.

The Skull & Crossbones Nebula in Canis Major - Dmini Duoband capture 60sec X 4hrs @60gain

• T31 - Skull & Crossbones (Canis Major): ECHO: A fierce, glowing star-forming region where intense radiation from young stars has carved out a haunting cosmic visage of hollow “eyes” and a jagged “jaw” amidst a sea of churning gas.

• T32 - Whirlpool Galaxy (Canes Venatici): SHOWPIECE: A breathtaking cosmic collision where a majestic grand-design spiral is caught in the act of devouring a smaller companion, creating a swirling bridge of stars and glowing gas.

Abell 31 in Cancer is 1/2 the moon wide, but so faint that you need an hour of integration just to start seeing it! Dwarf mini - 60sec X 5hrs @60 gain

• T33 - Abell 31 (Cancer): ECHO: A colossal, ancient “ghost” representing one of the largest planetary nebulae in our sky. Moving through the galaxy at high speed, its southern rim is being compressed into a brilliant “bow shock,” marking the final, 130,000-year-old exhale of a dying white dwarf.

• T34 - Markarian’s Chain (Leo / Virgo): SHOWPIECE: Anchored in the heart of the Virgo Cluster, a graceful arc of eight major galaxies drifts in a gravitational embrace, featuring the famous “Eyes” (NGC 4435/38) where tidal forces are actively stripping gas and distorting disks.

The oddly beautiful emission Octopus with a glowing tail - Dwarf mini - 60Sec x 4hrs @ 60gain

• T35 - Octopus Nebula (Monoceros): ECHO: A compact HII emission region; this “cosmic cephalopod” is ionized by high-energy ultraviolet radiation, exciting the surrounding hydrogen gas into a distinct glowing “head” and faint, sprawling filaments.

• T36 - Pinwheel Galaxy (Ursa Major): SHOWPIECE: A staggering “Grand Design” spiral nearly twice the diameter of our own Milky Way, showcasing a sprawling disk of over a trillion stars and brilliant pink HII regions where massive new suns are currently being born.

WildCards

• T37N - Stephan’s Quintet (Pegasus): SPECTRE: A breathtaking deep-sky vista featuring a violent laboratory of five colliding galaxies—complete with intergalactic shockwaves and tidal tails—anchored by the majestic NGC 7331.

GUM 5 - Another fascinating nebula in Canis Major with extraordinary dark-lane lacing - Dwarf mini 60sec X 4hrs @60gain

• T38S - Gum 5 (Canis Major): ECHO: An energetic central cluster ionizes a dense cloud of hydrogen to create a glowing red “bubble” of gas 19,000 light-years away, featuring intricate dark dust lanes carving through the core.

New to the DWARF? view our free DWARF Quick-start Guide for everything you need to know about setting up and shooting with your DWARF, including a complete walkthrough for EQ mode setup.

The DATACLUB - Mastering the “Ghosts”

Our latest raw data for paying subscribers is for Stephan’s Quintet. If you want to see how we pull these “faint fuzzies” out of the noise by collecting hour after hour of data, the DataClub is your archive. We include M81, 82, M31, M33, M42, plus the Heart and Soul, with ready-to-use SIRIL stacks in PNG format and Photoshop files to explore for our unique “Dwarf-wrangler” workflow.

Get the Raw Data, check out the DwarfVision DataClub on our site, access with your Substack email address.

Arm Your Gear

• The Master DSO List: DwarfVision Winter Challenge Targets

• Our March SkyGuide: DwarfVision Sky Guide

Whether you’re capturing the blood-red moon or chasing a “Pearl” during the blackout, remember: we are all part of this Shared Cosmic Adventure. Post your stacks and let’s see what these “small but mighty” telescopes can do tonight.

Clear Skies and Happy Hunting!

— The DwarfVision Team