January lunar eclipse locations

[h0ughy]

Looking forward to this event but looking at the long range forecast for the 31st and 1st Feb it's not looking good in the hunter. Some options I have found so far is Cobar in nsw. Nothing like a little forward planning

[Wavytone]

If it’s not looking good in Sydney I’ll be watching the clouds shown the BOM satellite photos carefully, aim being to hop in the car and drive as far west as it takes to get out from under the cloud.

Done that before for a couple of comets... a bit past Orange or thereabouts was sufficient, just find a nice spot to get off the road without light pollution.

And already arranged a day off from work on the 1st.

[bigjoe]

At over 33 minutes of arc, this is also the second Supermoon this year , another one in a years time...
Its also a Blue moon ..So Blue, Red and Super in same month!
This Full Eclipse will be visible all over Australia , but less so in the West coast of Australia ...still a sight.
PS:The big Star cluster M44 ..visible to the naked eye normally will be only a few degrees away...can't miss it in your Binos.

bigjoe.

[Saturnine]

Like many of us , I will be watching the cloud satellite photos very closely for that evening, is too good an event to miss out on and want to take plenty of images. So I'll be ready to jump in the car and travel, probably west, knowing what our coastal weather can be like.

[bigjoe]

Same Jeff ...may go west of Sydney to Castelreagh, were I have a few acres to stay a few days a week.
bigjoe.

[muletopia]

Should be good for the early evening 31/1/2018 at Kojonup. Public viewing arranged.

[Wavytone]

If it’s clear I’m considering setting up on the pavements outside homeboy and charging a dollar a look - the foot traffic here should be enough to find a new eyepiece set ;)

[h0ughy]

Looking at current forward forecast looks like Melbourne, benefit, wangaratta look to be clear so far. A long way from home.

[h0ughy]

Things still changing Newcastle doesn't look promising

[Visionary]

The great and honorable history of "Footpath Astronomy" maybe reinvigorated. Love the idea!

[xelasnave]

You can predict the weather using the premise that the weather will roll in to keep interesting events from our observation.

Alex

[cfn]

Just put together a quick page consolidating Meteograms, Maps, Radar and Satellite for all Australian regions. Both short and long term. The landing page is at:

http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/ (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/)

Just click on your corresponding state. We're actually now thinking of developing an event based forecast for myCFN where you could lock in a future date or time range and keep an eye on the forecast on the day as the event approaches. Meanwhile this should help for this one.

[Wavytone]

Not looking good, indeed. Which is as expected...

[h0ughy]

AWESOME - thank you for putting that together for the event. it should help heaps

[h0ughy]

ok its not looking great for eastern Australia - but PERTH - wow you lucky buggers have a dream run!! if only it wasn't a fortune to fly there and back, would be a great experience. looking at wangaratta......maybe?

[h0ughy]

looking at another web site its does get my hopes up - hope it is true:D

[Wavytone]

No chance unless the wind changes direction - to a westerly.

Straight southerly airflow means the east coast will be under low cloud with a possible drizzle.

OTOH it will probably be clear west of the moubtains.

[Camelopardalis]

Brisbane is looking doable, but I'll believe it when I see it :lol:

[Startrek]

I will be observing in the Ulladulla area south coast NSW and it’s looking very ordinary for Wednesday night

Can’t do much about it as most of the east coast is under cloud that evening

Ok past the great dividing range if you want to drive a few 100 kms

[h0ughy]

latest cfn has the entire east of Australia covered. i am now despondent and realise will not get a single shot of this eclipse

[AndyG]

Predicted cloud cover in Tville seems to drop away just as it gets good. If only it could do so 2 hours earlier?

Does anyone have an experience with the validity of these forecasts? I'm considering driving to my Folks' house 50km out of town.

[Wavytone]

Buy a plane ticket to Adelaide or Alice Springs, return Thursday. Probably cheaper and quicker than attempting to drive that far and the best part is you can sleep on the way back. Could be done for under $1k including a hire car there and meals.

[Wavytone]

4 days out they're usually fairly good.

From Townsville I'd suggest buy a ticket to Mt Isa if you really want to see this event.

[Saturnine]

From the CFN forecast for Wed evening, Thurs morning that I've looked at this evening , it is saying that for west of the mountains, in the Parkes , Cowra region it will only be high cloud. Maybe the cover will be thin enough to see lunar through it. So all is not lost yet, trying to be optimistic that a drive a few hours west may be worth it.

[cfn]

When the night of the eclipse comes within range of the 36h we will add a link to a high resolution total cloud coverage PDF download for the various states eclipse pages (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/) so you can view a high resolution forecast with hourly intervals and better plan your trip. The eclipse pages will also display ACCESS-C maps instead of ACCESS-R where available.

[Saturnine]

Just checked again and maybe around the Snowy Mtns region could be clear.
The CFN team, thanks for giving an more accurate forecast update as we get closer to Wednesday, much appreciated.

[h0ughy]

desperate and date waits for no one. is this the guess, do i buy a lottery ticket?

[alan meehan]

This area has now predictions of 3%cloud Canberra hi Mike looks to have 4% overnight what to do

[cfn]

As the date gets closer here's an Australian map (www.liveweather.com.au/pdf/myCFN_map_ACCESS_aus_cct_2018_01_29 _at_07_34am.pdf) with the areas most likely to be clear so far.

[Wavytone]

I’ll believe that when I see it. Highly improbable IMHO.

Though it does suggest about the only major city which will see it is Adelaide, if you’re that desperate.

[OzStarGazer]

Fine weather before and after the eclipse and bad weather on the day of the eclipse here, like for every single eclipse since I got into astronomy... :(

[OzStarGazer]

Luckily strictly speaking it is late in the evening, and at its peak after midnight (Thursday, when the weather is supposed to improve), so maybe I will catch a glimpse of it.

[h0ughy]

Just canned my proposed trip to Victoria to catch it. To iffy

[RB]

My place, around 9pm.
We can play with the drone and fire some coherent light at it, while we wait for the sky to clear.

RB
:D

[Icearcher]

Anyone in Adelaide planning anything?

I was thinking I might head to Garden Island if anyone is interested.

[OzStarGazer]

According to the Weatherzone it looks like it is going to fine up in the evening, but it will be cold and windy. Fingers crossed. There is hope.

[Wavytone]

Hmmm. Weather cleared up here but only because a sea breeze finally kicked in. But it also means the humid soggy stuff has been pushed inland and should return overnight.

Will be interesting to watch... usually the clouds roll back after sunset and clear again at dawn.

[Startrek]

Beautiful night tonight down the south coast NSW in the Ulladulla area

Getting my 10” dob out of the garage in half an hour for some lunar observing and photography

Wednesday night looking marginally better than the forecast 2 days ago

Fingers crossed for a break in the clouds on Wednesday night

Never observed an eclipse before, no doubt a wonderful experience for those who have

[cfn]

High resolution ACCESS-C maps are now starting to become available on the various eclipse pages (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/).
As the event draws closer we'll post the whole range covering the period for each state so you can better plan your imaging/viewing session.

There is now a LUNAR ECLIPSE button on CFN in the map side menu available to anyone. Select your region then click on the button. This will take you to a page displaying a small list of maps centered on the approximate time of the beginning of the event. The maps will switch to ACCESS-C the next update when the date enters the 36h range provided the model is available for your region. They will then automatically follow the current time and date until the end of the event.

The direct link is: http://www.cloudfreenight.com/event.lunar_eclipse.

[pmrid]

Well, that pretty much rules out any SE Qld sightings. Why am I not surprised?

Peter

[swannies1983]

Adelaide looks to be missing out. That’s the last 3 total lunar eclipses ruined by cloud.

[Saturnine]

It's looking a possibility from down the ACT and a little further south and east toward the coast as well. might have to start planning a few hours drive tomorrow afternoon / evening. About time we got lucky.

[dpastern]

yeah...I was really looking forward to this, was gonna be my first usage of my new ZWO 1600 pro on my 6" dob. Looks like the ENTIRE East coast is gonna see cloud, cloud and thrice cloud :(

[multiweb]

Around Canberra/Yass and to the east of the ACT is starting to look real good. Maybe there's hope for Sydney with the next update? All I need is a couple of sucker holes. :astron:

[Wavytone]

Another very warm muggy night here under a blanket of cloud keeping the heat locked in (Sydney). Cool change will be very welcome...

... as for tomorrow night... never give up I guess till 2am.

[OzEclipse]

David,

All of us here in the south appreciate the sacrifice a cloud magnet :rain::cloudy::windy: like you is making by not coming anywhere near us. As soon as you made that announcement, weather predictions immediately began improving. :lol:

Now looking like we will see it.

I'll give you credit on my photos

:thanks::thanks::bowdown:

Joe

[cfn]

Here's a list of the latest run of high resolution forecasts (where available) for tonight's eclipse.

VIC (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/vic/vic.pdf)
NSW (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nsw/nsw.pdf)
SEQLD (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/seqld/seqld.pdf)
NQLD (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nqld/nqld.pdf)
TAS (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/tas/tas.pdf)
SA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/sa/sa.pdf)
SWWA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/swwa/swwa.pdf)
NWWA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nwwa/nwwa.pdf)
CAUS (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/caus/caus.pdf)
NZ (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nz/nz.pdf)
NT (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nt/nt.pdf)

Any issues with the links let us know.

[OzStarGazer]

Right now the weather is a disgrace here. It looks apocalyptic. Maybe like others I shouldn't be surprised either. It is annoying because I have a cold and I have to stay up all night and check the front yard hoping to see something and then I will probably see nothing. Hopefully nobody will think I am a burglar... :)

[LewisM]

Looks like the vacuum and mega-tonnes of heat produced by Parliament House in Canberra have once again evaporated the clouds.

So, I will observe from my side yard or on The Golf Course.

And put "Dedicated to Houghy" on any photos :scared3: (don't you DARE drive out to Canberra - the clouds will follow you like hound dogs)

[OzStarGazer]

For the cloud magnets like me and h0ughy here is the NASA live stream (you will need a good Internet connection): https://www.nasa.gov/feature/super-blue-blood-moon-coming-jan-31

[Camelopardalis]

Needless to say, it's forecast to cloud over right on cue...

[Wavytone]

Solid cloud deck here - no chance - and the satellite images indicate it will stay this way.

[dpastern]

was clear in Brissie last night, I'll put money on it that it'll cloud over tonight. prolly around half an hour before the Eclipse starts.

[cfn]

Latest update of high resolution forecasts (where available) for tonight's eclipse. You might clear your browser cache to download the latest PDF file.

VIC (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/vic/vic.pdf)
NSW (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nsw/nsw.pdf)
SEQLD (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/seqld/seqld.pdf)
NQLD (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nqld/nqld.pdf)
TAS (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/tas/tas.pdf)
SA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/sa/sa.pdf)
SWWA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/swwa/swwa.pdf)
NWWA (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nwwa/nwwa.pdf)
CAUS (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/caus/caus.pdf)
NZ (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nz/nz.pdf)
NT (http://www.liveweather.com.au/lunar_eclipse/nt/nt.pdf)

Any issues with the links let us know.

[mozzie]

A strong southerly blowing here and it's low cloud and rain at the moment..
There must be something on tonight :rofl::mad2:

Still going to get up and have a look you never know..

A few years back another lunar eclipse and it was peeing down all day and night,still jumped into the car went to an area where I could possibly get a glimpse when it was getting low on the horizon and yes picked up a 10 second view well worth the wait..

Mozzie

[FlashDrive]

Yep ... sure has .... just been outside to have a look .... nothing but dense grey cloud covering the entire sky here.:(

Col...

[h0ughy]

i want a copy Joe;)

[Camelopardalis]

At least we don’t need to worry about a neutral density filter :lol:

Looks like we might have some rain soon...we might be lucky and get a sucker hole afterwards...

[Tsan]

Looks like it is going to be nice and clear in Perth. Going to head to the river in Guildford with 'scopes, and a couple of mates, and whoever walks past and wants a look.

I'll be sure to take a couple of photos for you lot in the rain :P

[dpastern]

I ain't gonna be a sucker believing that :P



rain and storm here...looking at the cloud cover, looks increasingly unlikely that it will clear up in time...not impressed am I. This happens all the bloody time...

[doppler]

Clear here in Mackay, but with another 4 hours till totality starts mmm hopefully it stays clear.

[swannies1983]

Wall-to-wall cloud here. Only hope is that because it's mainly high cloud, we might still get a glimpse of it.

[LewisM]

It's about 5/8ths here now in Canberra - might improve after 10pm (as seems usual)

[FlashDrive]

:( :sadeyes:

Edit .... it's starting to rain... :rain:

[LewisM]

3/8ths now 20:40...

Large enough expanses to likely warrant getting the telescope out.

[Russj]

Perfect conditions in Albury, at the moment

[bigjoe]

Absolutely hopeless here so far in sydney or Penrith way, just earlier...Ah I see a sucker hole ..maybe there is hope for a peek later after all!
bigjoe

[AG Hybrid]

Disappointed here in central Sydney.

[RB]

Drowning my sorrows as we speak....

:(

[h0ughy]

ok I have called it a night, I cant see anything but water vapour and looking at the satellite that's all I am going to see, now where is that nasa tv link ;)

[dpastern]

Same, although I'm gonna go play some PS4 to take out my frustrations on some poor monsters.

[LewisM]

Holding at between 3 and 4/8ths 22:00

Looks like a definite. Spoke to my father inland from Gladstone, QLD, and it's SKC (Sky Clear).

[EDIT: maybe not...]

[Imme]

Pastoria in central vic is poor....lots of cloud.
Might be an early night for me.

[LewisM]

And gone to 7/8ths... bugger.

Cloud moving roughly NNW, which is unusual for Canberra. Houghy must have blown it this way.

So, I currently can see the glow of the moon behind a dense bank of cloud...no penumbral sightings for me :(

[bigjoe]

Going to sit outside soon under the patio....rugged up, with a glass of red , crackers and some cheeses... and look up for a while anyhow!
bigjoe.

[alan meehan]

just heard its clear in cobar nsw

[Russj]

Reasonable conditions in Albury fast moving light wispy cloud, moon is clear 50-60% of the time.

[swannies1983]

Had a glimpse here and there though high cloud but thicker cloud has rolled in. Time for bed.....:sadeyes:

[Wavytone]

I'm not surprised. Reminds me of IRAS-Araki-Alcock, where I drove west across most of NSW to get out from under the cloud deck to photograph it on the last night it was visible, finally stopping at 3 am.

Can't do that this time. A man has to know his responsibilities.

[bigjoe]

Just looked through a sucker hole VERY briefly here in Sydney at 1043 pm ...still looks all white.
bigjoe

[pgc hunter]

The ONE FREAKING OVERCAST NIGHT IN THIS CLIMATE ofcourse, of-freaking-cuuuurrrssssse has to be, JUST HAS TO BE right on queue for the eclipse :mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2::mad2:


FAIL AT LIFE FAILWHALE HERP DE DERRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPP :mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2::mad2: :mad2::mad2:

[OzStarGazer]

No chance here... as usual... But I am watching 2 live streams and it is better than nothing.

[LewisM]

8/8ths [OVC] @ 22:56 - going to bed :lol:

[Wavytone]

Get used to it.

In Sydney over 38 years it has almost invariably been totally overcast whenever there was something worth seeing.

In that time just two - TWO - lunar eclipses were not clouded out.

I should add a statistical analysis been done which showed there is a correlation between the night-time cloud cover vs the moons phase. What this shows is that there is a bias towards clear weather between new moon through first quarter and full (pretty useless to us) and a bias to cloud cover between full through third quarter to new moon- when we would like to observe.

[LewisM]

Seen quite a few lunar eclipses previously (all in QLD), so not going to be overly perturbed.

Bit of a weird night for me anyway with my 94 year old Aunt passing away :(

[iborg]

Something must be badly wrong in Melbourne - I can see the moon!

Philip

[OzStarGazer]

I was so excited a couple of weeks ago. The weather had been good for so long. I thought - FINALLY I will see an eclipse, but no...of course not! :(

[alan meehan]

spitting rain here now off to bed

[bigjoe]

Got a glimpse of the Moon Wavy ..still all white ..maybe some penumbra..just now too
bigjoe.

[Wavytone]

Too soon, Joe. Totality starts 1151 and ends 0106. Im'll take a look outside at 12 and 0100.

But there's a roaring southerly blowing in from the sea along the whole eastern coast from Victoria to Brisbane, which means its pointless even thinking about setting up. We live on the high point here and get the sea breeze.

[CJ]

Cloud building since about 7.
9:46, starts raining.
Exasperating doesn't get close.

[bigjoe]

Too true Wavy..just out here with wife and dogs anyhow..for an hr..so if it happens it happens.
bigjoe.

[el_draco]

Perfect clear skies around Hobart. Spectacular view, absolutely SPECTACULAR! :D

[Russj]

Still got reasonable view in Albury moon is clear about 40% of the time now, cloud is still light and wispy.:)

[Wavytone]

Don't suppose you have a camera...

[AndrewJ]

Still lookin good from the inner burbs of Melb.
No cloud ( so far ) near the moon

Andrew

[Camelopardalis]

Had a patch of rain here earlier, the thick cloud persists...

[swannies1983]

Lol, I see most of Tasmania is clear!

[bigjoe]

Yeah. ROM...Rub it in.
bigjoe.

[OzStarGazer]

Ah, if I had known I would have come to Hobart! I wouldn't have minded the distance.

[OzStarGazer]

To those who are enjoying a spectacular view - please have some pity with us and don't brag too much during totality...

[AndrewJ]

No time for pity, gotta get back outside
Unusual for Melb, but whos complaining

Andrew

[bigjoe]

https://www.space.com/?utm_source=notification
Can watch it on this ..with explanations from Experts.
bigjoe

[Wavytone]

C'mon... can't anyone shove a camera on the backend of a scope in Tas or WA ? Even an iPhone ?

[dpastern]

Go away Ron. Go away :P



Sorry to hear about your Aunt passing Lewis.

I've seen a reasonable amount of solar eclipses, but few lunar (always damn cloudy!!!!).

Very frustrated, especially since we've had mostly clear nights the past week and a half...it's like the universe is saying 'nope, mate, you ain't gonna see this".

[dpastern]

I'll see your space.com and raise you a nasa.gov:

https://twitter.com/i/events/958076337377370112

[bigjoe]

Cheers..bigjoe.

[Russj]

Live view on https://www.timeanddate.com/live/ and commentry.
Great view in Albury

[OzStarGazer]

More live views:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oIWl1jLE20
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ccbe6NKiuk

[swannies1983]

Just ended up with one clear patch just as totality started. I can now say I have "seen" the total eclipse.

[AndrewJ]

Still looks spectacular in ( normally ) cloud central of Melb
Amazing how the line of heavy clouds are just staying to our west
I still get impressed by how 3D the moon looks when fully eclipsed against a clear background sky

Andrew

[Wavytone]

Looks like a relatively dark one, though hard to tell from the sites.

Anyone posted a still from a decent camera and scope yet ?

[el_draco]

By a country light year, the BEST lunar eclipse i have ever seen. Colour in the moon is just breathtaking; like its been airbrushed! Beehive cluster nearby is great and I can see stars right on the lunar limb. Bout time we got a winner down here! Back to it...

[dpastern]

seeing a few gaps in the low cloud in Brissie, but there's high cloud above it, so no good anyway :(

[Icearcher]

Sorry to hear that Lewis. I hope it was peaceful

Getting a bit of a show in Adelaide. My tracking mount seems to be countering some of the cloud issues. I'm getting some good shots......I think. I can only judge fro the camera screen

[bigjoe]

If you look carefully towards the end of the Eclipse, as in the beginning, you will see some of the blue light that the Ozone in our atmosphere has refracted onto the Moon as well as mostly red...this will occur on the Moons limb ...visually or on the Youtube feeds.
bigjoe

[OzEclipse]

Observing from michelago 50k south of Canberra with Bengt from Sweden Matt (Kunama) and Tak Bono’s and Greg Bond from Brisbane. First half of the eclipse mostly clear. Cloud rolled in a few mins before mid totality.

Beautiful eclipse.

Joe

[Tsan]

Pretty spectacular eclipse. Still looks fantastic. Hopefully my pics will turn out, if not I don't really mind - I am more into visual astronomy anyway.

[dpastern]

Where in Brisbane is Greg? @ Ipswich where I live, it's cloud, cloud and thrice cloud and has been since this afternoon...

[OzEclipse]

And clear again

[dpastern]

i just had a look at the bom website, satellite images...heaviest cloud in the country is guess where...Brisbane...

I apologise for all of the Brisbanite IIS members - you didn't get to see this cos of my bad luck.

[OzEclipse]

And clouds. It’s just toying with us. Packing up.

[h0ughy]

nothing except for NASA live cast

[doppler]

Ok here's one, after 4mths of near constant cloudy nights, tonight was clear?
120mm f5 achro refractor.

[dpastern]

Lovely stuff Rick! Beautiful blood Red!

[h0ughy]

fantastic result, very envious

[N1]

Great capture Rick, clouded out so couldn't see it myself but this is the next best thing. Love the star field. :thumbsup:

[Camelopardalis]

Spectacular Rick :thumbsup:

[OzStarGazer]

Clear skies today of course... :sadeyes::mad2: Ridiculous... The Sydney Observatory didn't even have a live stream yesterday (they did for past eclipses, just to announce that it could not take place because of bad weather, so I guess they didn't even try this time). I think NSW has been the worst place for eclipses in the last few years.

[OzEclipse]

Great but also very sad night as I observed the lunar eclipse with Bengt, my great friend and solar eclipse observing partner of nearly 20 years. He is very ill and after 12 solar eclipse chases together since 2001 with only one clouded out this was our last observation of an eclipse together.

True to my word I have given David Hough co-credit on the image. David's selfless act of publicly stating that he was staying away from this area resulted in an immediate improvement in our regions weather prognosis. We saw much of the eclipse with some periods of cloud giving us time for a much needed coffee break.

Thanks Houghy! :thumbsup:

Joe Cali

[h0ughy]

:rofl: well :thanx: Joe. :thumbsup: I think a lot of others fell on their sword as well. i must applaud the imaging results that were broadcast live by NASA from the Griffith observatory, even though i was seething it did take the edge off:P;)

[graham.hobart]

I stayed out till 12.30am running two cameras and scopes- Tak babyQ and 60Da, and 106N and ZWOASI094 full frame OSC. It was a beautiful night but sadly a work night so I packed up at that time. I have tons of images I need to go through after work this Saturday night and will post some then. I was hoping to do an animation- any suggestions on software to use? Most of my images are either Canon raw or fits.
Cheers
Graham

[OzStarGazer]

The live streams were a godsend. I can't imagine how it must be to live in a place with bad weather without being able to see anything at all. And some had commentaries too. Astonishingly one of the Slooh astronomers (a young woman) said she had never seen a total eclipse before, and the other astronomer said only twice, and he looked at least 10 years older than she. 3:28:46 here: https://www.space.com/19195-night-sky-planets-asteroids-webcasts.html

[LewisM]

I had a 10 second window around 00:46 last night. Quick glimpse of orange. Went to bed. I think Matt and Joe blew the clouds this way to save themselves - NOT FAIR!

[OzEclipse]

We had several large fans :rofl:
Joe

[OzEclipse]

One more taken about 1/4 way into totality.........

Joe

[Saturnine]

Well I'm glad that's over with, packed the car yesterday afternoon and headed southwest toward hopefully clearer skies. Was limiting myself to a range of a tankful of petrol for the round trip, (tight budget), with the BOM satellite scans and CFN predictions as a guide.
Ended up south of Braidwood at sunset with no break in the cloud mass in sight though the edge of the cloud band was supposed to move north during the evening, so I picked a spot to wait it out. The cloud didn't seem to want to dissipate as eclipse time got closer and it didn't. By 11:00pm I thought I could see a possible edge to the cloud band on the southern horizon but it never got closer unfortunately.
So, an 500+km round trip to see and image nothing, so much for the planning and going by accounts, if I had ventured a bit further south down the Cooma Rd I probably would have got under clearer skies. From where I was to Michelago as the crow flies was not that far, less than 100 km so it was a little demoralising to read the reports of the guys that were there and who got to see some of the show.
To all who had clearer skies, thanks for sharing your images, most appreciated and to the CFN guys, thanks for your efforts in keeping us updated with the cloud forecasts for the evening. Now we can plan to do it all again on 28th July, with more success I hope.

[muletopia]

Wow, what a success. CFN had our forecast spot on (Lumeah meteogram)

We set up eight telescopes not knowing how many people would show up.
Kojonup, population about 2400 and in the course of the evening we had about 200 visitors.
The 'scopes ranged from a 12 inch home made truss dob,down to a 2 inch refractor.
A couple of Mead LX's a wooden home made 6 inch f5 newtonian and a Skywatcher 8 inch f6 dob.
It was suggested that phones could be used at the,2 inch 35mm, eyepiece of the Skywatcher dob and 20mm eyepiece in the 6 inch newtonian. Two hours of continuous photography ensued. Gee, the other scopes had time to look at other bright goodies.
What a thrill to see such enthusiasm from entire families from the entire cross section of the community.
A very successful outreach event.

Chris

[h0ughy]

wow you identified 500km worth of water vapour:thumbsup:

[Saturnine]

And I don't think that I saw all of it either.:shrug:

[AndyG]

You Guys would hate me...

We had perfect clarity in Townsville, bar 30mins around totality time. I brought 4 scopes to my folks' place in the hills - nice and dark. I've got so much to learn, being the noobest of noobs. In the face of near perfect opportunity, the following happened:

<rant>

Spent 1 hour fighting with my Canon Kiss X4 (a 300D?). Setup for prime focus, I failed to get exposure or focus right. Without any live view, or masks, there was little chance (not that I even know what I'm doing anyway). No GoogleFu moves, as there is no Telstra reception there for my phone.

After I finally beat the exposure issue (through the gamer's equivalent of button mashing), both SCTs dewed over solid. Curtains for them. Employing Noobism - we closed the lid and tried warming by hand to no avail. Time for a dew shield at least.

Over to the Bushnel Northstar newt. The mount being as steady as Michael J Fox listening to Jacko's Billie Jean... :party: I forgot how bad that was since getting the Nexstar 6.

Oh well, learning is half the fun right? Time to hit some IIS articles! Still, it was the best thing since Halley's for our little gathering. Here's looking forward to some nice pics by someone here who knows what they're doing :)

</rant>

P.S. Big thanks to CFN Team! They nailed it for Townsville.

[GrahamL]

Waited patiently for a change in the weather and it came around 11.00pm
Light rain for the rest of the night .

[multiweb]

Nice shot. :thumbsup:

[Kunama]

Nice photo Joe, a very successful and enjoyable though very cold evening.
I was too tired to notice that I had left two windows open in the motorhome.
It was 4ºC inside the motorhome at 6am.... thanks to the ducted heating.. by 7am it was balmy 20ºC.....

After a quick breakfast I headed home at 7.30. Hope Bengt enjoyed the eclipse.
Great to catch up with you, Bengt and Greg.

[OzEclipse]

One more image processed to bring out the graded colours of sunset across the lunar disk. Joe

[troypiggo]

Still cloudy and raining here in Brisbane. Waiting for the weather to clear so I too can get a shot of this rare eclipse.


:nerd:

[RB]

Yeah me too Troy.
I waited 24h and got a shot last night instead when it finally cleared up here.

RB
:D

[multiweb]

Noice! I'm still waiting for my sucker hole. :lol:

[RB]

Just wait a bit, it'll come, apparently there's a magnetic shift on it's way.

:P

[multiweb]

I'll attempt a full moon tonight or what's left of it. I have that sepia photoshop plugin ready to go. You just wait. :P

[RB]

Where did you get it from?
Bunnings paint section?

:lol:

[multiweb]

Low blow. I might just have to ask one of the mods to remove that post along with the inflammatory comment. :)

[RB]

:lol:

[lynkim1]

Blue Moon + Blood Moon = Super, Purple, CRAZY Moon :rofl:

[RB]

See what you started Marc?

:lol:

[muletopia]

One reasonable picture
Taken with a visitor's Canon EOS 1000d
Camera set up and the image processed by Len North using Nebulosity.
Capture; 5 seconds at ISO 100 mounted on a Telvue 100 IS.

Chris

[muletopia]

Telescope Telvue NP101 IS

[RB]

Chris, that is stunning.
Well done.

RB

[multiweb]

Very sharp. Nailed it! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[muletopia]

Andrew , the well done should be directed to Len.

Chris

[bigjoe]

Friend in Italy used this for live broadcast of the Lunar Eclipse... was anyone else this keen?
bigjoe

[RB]

Len :thumbsup: