Don’t forget the total lunar eclipse Saturday! It won’t be visible over here in the West (except toward the end – see Amara’s remark), so unfortunately I won’t get to see all of it, but lots of you might, so you can tell us about it! Here’s a link to Nasa’s website for viewing times, and a handy chart:
Also, have a look at the Lunar Eclipses for Beginners site for lots of information and galleries of photos (such as the one I displayed above, by Fred Espenak, of the January 20/21 2000 moon at totality). [Update: Stefan has some more information over on Backreaction.]
Enjoy!
-cvj
(Thanks Michelle!)
Thanks for the warm words on my new painting style, Clifford. I always did like watercolor, but it could be that my painting style hasn’t progressed very much beyond the school of basic “splosh“. 🙂
The refractor is an 80mm short tube jobby. I have a tiny little digicam that I held up to the eyepiece for a shot, but it didn’t capture any of the red at that point (it wasn’t in totality yet).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/candace/409177809/
It’s fun to see what you can do with limited capabilities!
Amara: – I actually like both photos, and don’t think of them in competition at all. You had way fewer pixels to work with and so you did an impressionist-style painting instead…. with very warm colours indeed…
Cheers,
-cvj
A Canon Powershot SD 630, that fits inside of the palm of my hand, and with not even close to telephoto capabilities, versus a small refractor telescope (what size, Candace?) with a Canon EOS 350D picking up the image.
There you have it folks. The little one with the CCD chip actually didn’t do too badly, once I learned how to use the ‘long shutter mode’ and the exposure compensation and some of the other manual features appropriate for this task. Can you imagine if we were still in the Brownie camera days?
And Candace’s
-cvj
Here’s that photo of Amara’s. I love the blue.
See her explanation above.
-cvj
We had a lovely evening of it here in London — we were blessed with a freak crystal clear night for the occasion. Paul and I hauled the refractor telescope out to the pavement and took a few snaps. Here’s one taken at totality: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blech/409247999/
It was really quite lovely, we had random passersby stopping for a look through the ‘scope on their way home from the pub.
Compare an image from the folks with the professional equipment (your German astronomy friends): http://www.vds-astro.de/astroaktuell/2007/Mondfinsternis/image/IMG_3047B.jpg
with an image from my handy digital that is not designed for such photography
http://amara.com/luneclipse/IMG_5289_cropped.jpg
Ok, you laugh, but at least the lunar maria is correct, true?
“… maybe there is just some Moon-looking gene that some of us have, and most don’t…”
However, I’m sure that our ancestors were skilled at looking at the Moon! There was a glorious spectacle last night of the eclipsed Moon occurring over the heads of all of these people, and no one in the apartments around or walking on the streets below me noticed. How difficult can it be to look at the Moon?
Ha, I was lucky: the clouds went away around 22:00 UT, and I could follow nearly the whole eclipse :-). Yes, this kind of diamond ring effect at the end of the total ecplipse was quite impressive!
Dear Amara,
I saw no one looking up at the Moon.
… maybe there is just some Moon-looking gene that some of us have, and most don’t… 😉 Prove in point: Sabine’s mum sent me a mail that she had a perfect view of the ecplise, and I had a kind of phone conference with my mother while she was also watching…
This particular eclipase gave me the opportunity to learn the manual mode of the camera and how to turn _off_ all of the other automatic functions like the flash. It was a nice experience to learn what most of those other settings actually do. I call it a ‘toy camera’ because it doesn’t cover the range of my good Contax, however, it’s far more versatile than my Contax, so I should resist the temptation to call it a ‘toy’.
While I was still in the bathroom (heh!), taking shots of the Moon, it must have looked funny for people on the outside of my building, with the occasional flash appearing through the open window. But no one who I saw below my apartment building, said anything. Moreover, I saw _no one_ looking up at the Moon all evening. Not a single person. This is my fourth lunar eclipse watching from my flat (where I have an excellent view of the Moon). After a while, I moved my viewing to the terrace, when the Moon rose higher, and the same. I have a view of the apartments of say, 100 people all around me, and in the 3-4 hours of the event I saw not a single person who looked at the Moon. Four lunar eclipses, say 16 hours of my viewing the Moon, and I saw no one looking up at the Moon. It’s times like this that I feel that I am a total misfit in this culture.
Ah… the moon rose a short while ago…. a yellow-orange colour.
-cvj
I love these descriptions from all of you, by the way…. thanks everyone!
“twinkling like a reflected diamond ring”
That’s lovely.
-cvj
Ahhh, it’s ending now.
We can see the bright light of Sol edge into the limb… Pause a breath and it’s moved a little further, twinkling like a reflected diamond ring.
There’s a hint of white on the left edge, that looks like the Moon is coming out of eclipse.
Clifford, look at the German astronomers‘ web site. They have a couple of gorgeous pictures.
I just sent to you my ‘best’ from my toy camera. I learned how to use it for more than simple snapshots this evening, but it is not really designed for this kind of photography. 🙂
And if the stromboli online people are not taking photographs now with the lunar eclipse hanging over Stromboli’s new lava vents and rivers, then they are really dumb.
I think they are rare. Seen only, er, once in a blue moon.
(sorry, couldn’t resist.)
-cvj
We’re watching it right now.
It’s beautiful.
The top part is pale blue and the bottom copper, like a worn penny.
The sky is full of stars, silent, without a breath of wind.
The blue is interesting, perhaps a contrast effect? Can’t say I’ve ever noticed a blue moon before.
Cloudy in Boston. All I can see is the great nebula M0.
Yes, I recall thinking of the resemblance to Mars the last time I saw the moon at totality. The red-brown tinge gives it such a different character.
-cvj
What lovely colors! It kind of looks like Mars.. There is a white strip (one minute from totality) with a bluish-greenish portion in the middle, and the bottom half is deep brown and red.
Only a quarter of the Moon is ‘visible’ now.
I’m sending you one. It’s not very good because 1) I don’t have a tripod for the toy camera, and 2) the contrast is too high. I am balancing the camera on the window ledge against my box of Chinese health balls, so i hope the shot is in focus. However, you can’t see any features on the Moon because of the contrast. It should be more photographical once it is in totality.
Now instead of seeing only black and white and gray, I’m seeing some nice brown tints. Hello Earth atmosphere!
If you email me one or two, I can pop them up for people to see…. I’ll be here for a bit longer, tinkering in the garden.
-cvj
Ok, it is about half-way obscurred now, with the bottom portion of the Moon almost black. This is going to be good!
Oooooooooooooh. I’m convinced. For the last 15 minutes while I was fiddling with my toy digital camera, shooting strange pictures, I thought that there was a permanent cloud obscurring the bottom part of the Moon. No, it’s going into a beautiful deep shadow now. It looks gorgeous in my binoculars. The bottom quarter of the Moon is almost black.
stefan, spyder, thanks for the links!
-cvj
Since I was a child I found that reading the fineprint on labels of the various products in the bathroom is a great way to pass the time in there…. I learned a lot too! 🙂
-cvj
I can see the ‘eclipse’ through fast-moving patchy clouds. I put the eclipse in quotes because lunar eclipses are not visibly impressive when the Moon goes in and out of totality (that’s when the Moon changes color to an orange tint.). The Moon right now in my binoculars looks like… the Moon. No orange tint yet. I’ll keep poking my head out of the window and let you know when I see something interesting. My bathroom window faces out of the other side of my apartment in the direction of the Moon.. hmm. maybe I should .. I dunno, manicure my nails or do something useful while I’m in there!
Frankfurt am Main has a dense cloud cover, and right now it is raining. But there is a life reporting organised by a German association of amateur astronomers from a place near Bonn, Germany, where they seem to be more lucky with the weather.
Best regards, stefan
The sky here (Rome) is socked in with clouds. I might not be seeing our orange lunar friend this night. There’s still time (3 hours to totality, the penumbral contact begins in about one hour), though, so I’ll tell you if I succeeded to see anything.
for specific details of access depending upon where you are go to:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/
then click on astronomical applications and then on “data services”
under that menu you find
the lunar eclipse computer
with two forms, one for US local and one for international viewing.
This is a handy reference for all future viewing including the total lunar eclipse coming to our western US region in August.
Hmmm, actually there’ll be some good bits left – you’re right… Thanks!
-cvj
Yes, but not at totality, right?
-cvj
“It won’t be visible over here in the West, so unfortunately I won’t get to see it,”
You should be able to see the last ~30 min of the eclipse, i.e. the Moon partially ‘eclipted’, at the time of your Moonrise, Clifford.