Upcoming Event: Total Lunar Eclipse, June 15 / June 16th 2011

[iceman]

Hi all

I've written an article detailing the upcoming Total Lunar Eclipse, on the 15th / 16th June 2011 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-618-0-0-1-0.html).

The article contains all the information you need including where and when you can view it, and how to photograph the eclipse.

The first total lunar eclipse of 2011 occurs in the early morning of the 16th June, about 1.5 hours before sunrise AEST.

Observers in Western Australia will get to see the whole event, while the Eastern States will miss the last partial stages of the eclipse as the Moon will set just after totality.

It's a long eclipse, with totality lasting 100 minutes. A good Westerly aspect will be essential as the Moon will be low in the West during totality.

Click the link below for more information about the eclipse, how and where you can see it and photograph it, and to look for timings and moon altitude for a city near you.

You can read more at:
Total Lunar Eclipse, June 15 / June 16th 2011 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-618-0-0-1-0.html)

Please post any questions, and later, observing reports and images!

Cheers

[iceman]

Article uploaded.

[iceman]

First reminder for this total lunar eclipse in June.

Don't forget to 'Like' the article!

[bmitchell82]

The day after my birthday. Brilliant! :D Thanks mike for a good article.

[h0ughy]

i hope its clear and crisp

[Liz]

This will be great ... starts about 5.20 am for me, and wont last too long, but still looking forward to it.
Thanks Mike. :)

[Liz]

I ran it out through Stellarium, and thats what it showed me. Partial phases earlier sounds good. :)

[mithrandir]

Liz, the whole eclipse takes 110 minutes centred on 6:12am, with 50 minutes totality in the middle. For Townsville moon set is at about 6:48 - about 11 minutes after totality finishes. I guess somewhere on the west side at the top of Castle Hill would maximise the length of time you could observe.

Cartes du Ciel shows the earth's shadow to make the eclipse easy to simulate.

Andrew

[swannies1983]

Can't wait. I missed the partial eclipse last year because my wife was giving birth to my son! How dare they interrupt my viewing! :lol: Oh well, maybe it's a sign that my little man will follow in his dad's footsteps ;)

[iceman]

Stripped my Brisbane viewing spots discussion to this thread:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=76137

[Mariner]

Hello All,
I am very keen to get a good look at the upcoming eclipse and was wondering where the best viewing spots on the central coast of nsw would be? I see there are many of my IIC brethren who live here, are there any good spots near me (see where I live). I was thinking of Foresters Beach headland maybe??? I would love to be able to set up the big dob but will gladly settle for my refractor. I don't want too far of a drive as I will most probably my sleepy little six yr old astronomer with me.

Good luck to all with the weather for the event.
Regards, F.

[iceman]

Hi Frank

Definitely don't worry about the big dob. Even the refractor, unless you're planning on imaging, won't give the best of views.

A total lunar eclipse is almost best viewed with just the eyeballs, or binoculars.

I'll be in Brisbane unfortunately, but if I was on the Central Coast, I was thinking Long Jetty with a view across the lake to the West (good foreground scene for photography :))

Forresters might be ok but I can't think of where you get the view across to the west?

[Mariner]

HI Mike,
Great idea about long jetty - great foreground too. I will try a bit of photography (just got the adapter and t mount for my e510 last week) so may drag out the refractor.

Thanks again for that. I will let you know how I went.
Best regads, Frank.

[Liz]

I have great eastern horizon, but nothing exciting in the west. :sadeyes:
Will have to work out where to go, and reread Mikes article on how to photograph a lunar eclipse. :D

[Liz]

Looking good up here at the moment, fine and sunny still for Thursday.

[GraemeT]

Looks like Sydney will be an absolute washout, forecast is for heavy rain.

[iceman]

This is pretty cool, shows what the Lunar Eclipse will look like if you were on the Moon :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es9Nymrwen0

[leon]

Yep, and two days after mine Brenden, hope you had a good one.

Leon

[Liz]

What a shame, I noticed there were a couple of lows lurking down there Graeme. :sadeyes:



Cool video Mike. :thumbsup:
Lucky you wont be in Sydney either by the looks.

Am recovering from an interview on ABC radio this morning to discuss the event!! Hate speaking in public, and fumbled my way through. :help:
Michael Clarke (radio announcer) commented that it was a good sign for the Maroons that the Moon would go red. ;) Go Queensland.

[swannies1983]

Not looking good for Adelaide with mostly cloud expected in the morning :(.

[gaa_ian]

Looking good for Gove NT, clear skies and cool (not freezing) conditions.
I will be out from 4am when the partial begins here.
I look forward to seeing the photos from around the country.

[mithrandir]

Broken cloud when the alarm went off. Now raining.

I'll go to the planned observing site, but it's a good thing there are lots of astronomy podcasts on the iPod and a book to read.

[Binca]

Yeah, I am wondering what channel 10 news call those big white things blocking out the sky if there is very little chance of clouds.. :o

Oh well, will stay up anyway, there lots of wind, so I might get lucky and have them clear.

[rogerg]

Rain coming and going here in Perth. Woken by my alarm at 3am and so far not much more than a glimpse of the moon. Waiting until totality before giving up.

[bartman]

Dito Roger,
I'm at work so Ill keep trying!
Bartman

[glenc]

I just had a look at the Moon with 12x60 binoculars. The botom of the moon was yellowish (around Mare Crisium), the left side was orange and the top right (around the 2pm position) was very dark, probably because of the volcanic ash.

[Binca]

I managed to get some decent observing through my telescope (a lower magnification), my binoculars and just by looking. I could even have tried taking some vaguely pathetic photos if my camera hadn't mysteriously died on me. One horrible photo, and then "battery flat, we reccomend putting more in." So I put more in, didn't work. So I tried another lot of batteries. Still didn't work. So I took the batteries I know work out of the TB remote. Still didn't work. D:

[rogerg]

Well, feels like a grab and run but that's my lunar eclipse over! Skies cleared at 3:37 and clouded at 4:08. Telescope was slewing to park position as I shut the roof as rain approached.

[swannies1983]

High cloud spoiling the show but had a clear patch just as totality started. To me this is quite a dark eclipse (due to ash?) but might be just due to cloud. What's it like for those with clear skies?

[Suzy]

We had clear skies here in Brissy.:D The orange moon was a beautiful sight.
I was using my 10x60 binos.:D

[rogerg]

The Google logo has been progressing through the eclipse as it happens. Quite neat.

[aftermidnight]

Hi, Im a pretty much still a beginner member from Central Coast of NSW. Haven't posted in years but I'm in a city called Adana inTurkey at the moment watching the full luner eclipse. Fantastic here!! And it's at it's full exclipse moment right now, 11:30pm turkish time. Awesome to watch from here. Will post some pictures when its done. Andrew

[Mariner]

Central coast not washed out but all clouded over. Slight glimpses here and there. Amazingly we got to see totallity, but not much else unfortunately. Glad to hear others around the country had some views, the little that we saw here was still well worth it.

[tonycynic]

Cold but mainly clear in Coldstream. Lots of ice. First pic.

[Liz]

Beautiful clear and cold skies here in Townsville, feel for all those rained out though. :sadeyes:
A beautiful reddish Moon hanging below a starry Milky Way made for spectacular views!!
Woohoo ... well done Andrew in Turkey, wow!

[Mariner]

Nice one Andrew - lucky you weren't on the central coast. Liz - hope you got some pics to post???
regards to all, F.

[joelbramley]

http://joelbramleyphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/total-lunar-eclipse-2011.html

Clear skies until 6.30am in Central Victoria, managed to get a few alright photos :)

[Mike21]

Woke up in time. Set up under relatively clear skies. Got this far.

http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc370/speedie11/16June039copy.jpg

Then noth'n. Pack up and try to catch up on sleep.

[scagman]

Nice clear skies here this morning (Kinglake West). Took some shoots (140odd), with my partners unmodified Nikon D3000 with a 35-200 zoom I think. Had a quick read of the manual to learn how to set exp. and ISO.
Did a couple of test shots before going to bed, set the alarm for 3:50.
Alarm went off, got up had a look out the bedroom window to see if clear or not. Clear. Cool. Then I reliesed I had a perfect view from my bedroom window.
I dont have a mount or tripod yet so I used a pillow to rest the camera on so the shots aren't great but they work.
Also these are my first attempts at imaging the night sky so I was playing with different settings to see what worked etc.
Anyway the eclipse looked good and was worth getting up for(takes a lot to get me up before I have to goto work:D). Esp being able to stay nice and warm inside.:D:D

[tonycynic]

A couple more from this morning.

[Liz]

Have mine is Solar System area, but here is my best.:)

Great images all, and a wful montage Joel.


Gulp Scagman, from your bedroom window, excellent pic. :D

[Analog6]

I set up my camera to do timed interval shots in batches of 10. These are images taken 10 mins apart starting at 0426 and finishing at 0535 (yes, my minutes didn't come out exactly because I varied the interval as I went along). As the sun set during totality we don't get the last phases.

I've always wanted to do one of these and am quite pleased with this one. There was some thin cloud to about halfway through the partial phase, that's why a couple of 'stages' seem very faint.

Taken from terranora, far north coast NSW, looking west (of course) with Hasselblad H2 / PhaseOne P20 back / HC 50-110 zoom @110/f8

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/5838097386_6700f785b5_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/odille/5838097386/)
Lunar Eclipse Montage (http://www.flickr.com/photos/odille/5838097386/) by Photography by Odille (http://www.flickr.com/people/odille/), on Flickr

[Rob_K]

Better late than never! Had awesome views of the eclipse from the top of Mt Porepunkah in NE Victoria. The Ovens Valley below was pretty well fogged out although my daughter in Bright did manage to see most of it.

Here's a couple of views of the totally eclipsed Moon.

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/eclipseoverbuffalo55mmsm.jpg
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/MtB18mmst2fullsm.jpg

Cheers -

[iceman]

Lovely shots Rob, great view!

[Rob_K]

Thanks Mike. First time I've been up there for a celestial event, mightn't be the last. Half hour from Bright on a good dirt road.

Cheers -

[orestis]

Awesome photos Rob_K :thumbsup:,

Alas it was all clouded up here and I only managed a glimpse through high cloud.well i suppose i have to wait until december.

Cheers Orestis;)

[scagman]

Thanks Liz, I like your shot with the reflection in the damvery nice.

[spacezebra]

Stunning Rob!

What beautiful scenery!

Cheers Petra d.

[firstlight]

Have to agree with you, this was the darkest eclipse I have seen. It might be due to the ash but it was passing close to the centerline of the shadow. Quite happy that the camera could pull out the moon even though it was so dark visually.

Cheers
Tony

[swannies1983]

True, but I don't recall the July 2000 eclipse to be as dark as this one.

[RWhite]

Mostly everywhere across Ukraine there were great summer conditions, all of the eclipse except of the earliest penumbral phases. So I went 5km away from my home to a rural location. Wow, this was my first total eclipse visible COMPLETELY (unobscured by clouds for any second), and the first one to be SO DARK. :) A view of umbral eclipse through 20x90 binos is magnificent!* ::) A quick look at what I saw is being attached below.
http://astronomy.pl.ua/photos/tle110615-2210web.jpg
4.0s @ISO400 f/4.5, Olympus SP-550UZ 18x zoom.

It is maximal umbral phase (1.70) at 20:10 UT. I'd rough estimate it as 1,5 Danjon scale. Notice also the 7.8mag star to lower right. I will link back to the rest of my photos later.* :)