Upcoming Event: Total Lunar Eclipse, December 10 / December 11th 2011

[iceman]

Hi all

I've written an article detailing the upcoming Total Lunar Eclipse, on the 10th / 11th December 2011 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html).

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

The second eclipse of 2011 is better placed for all Australians and New Zealanders, as the whole event will be visible no matter where you live. The partial stages start just before midnight on the 10th December AEDST, with mid-totality occuring at about 1:30am AEDST on the 11th December.

The eclipse lasts for 51 minutes, and the Moon will be in the North at about 30 degrees altitude for mid-southern latitudes (eg: around Sydney).

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, December 10 / December 11th 2011 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html)

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

Cheers

[iceman]

Article uploaded.

[DanielEMccarty]

I like it very much. Its so interesting. Its a very useful article. I like the way you explain the things. Keep posting. Thanks

[pike]

Hey

Am really excited about seeing the total eclipse, both June and December.

Just wanted to let you know the link to the PDF file in the Dec article actually points to the June eclipse and should point here http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2011-Fig06.pdf

[tonycynic]

News today has flights being cancelled to NZ and tassie due to volcanic dust from South America. Will this give us a 'redder' moon this year?:question:
Could be worth getting up for.

Sorry, wrong eclipse. :o

[iceman]

Only just over a month until the Total Lunar Eclipse in December. It's well placed for Aussies and NZ'ers. Maybe not quite at prime-time, happening at midnight-1am-ish for the east coast, but probably better than 4am like the one in June :)


Ah thanks for that. I've fixed it on my local copy. Will be uploaded in the next day or two.

[mswhin63]

Really good time lets hope the clouds stay away! Thanks Mike for the reminder.

[Mliss]

i second that! i know it's coming, but so is Xmas and it's too easy to get off track ;)

[Poita]

Mike if I try to look at the link to your images or gallery, I get the following error:


Notice: Undefined offset: 8192 in /home/mikesalw/public_html/gallery/include/debugger.inc.php on line 112
Coppermine critical error:
Unable to connect to database !

MySQL said: Access denied for user 'msalway_msalway'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

[Jen]

[QUOTE=iceman;782884] Maybe not quite at prime-time, happening at midnight-1am-ish for the east coast, but probably better than 4am like the one in June :)

QUOTE]
:D Yes that time is much better for me too and its not a school night either woohooo ;)

[Baddad]

Thanks Mike.
Here's hoping no-one buys new gear and attracts the rain clouds in Brisbane.
Cheers:lol:

[Danack]

A quick - and possibly dumb - question on framing pictures of the eclipse.

Presumably the moon will be in approximately the same position on the night of the eclipse as it is on the previous night (obviously an hour or so later) so if I setup a camera on the previous night, when the moon is at it's azimuth, it should be in about the same position on the night of the eclipse.



Don't worry - I'm pretty sure I'm going to drag all the clouds to Lord Howe Island as I've booked a trip there to tie in with the eclipse.

[iceman]

Hi Dan

Yes, the Moon will rise roughly through the same location. You can use Stellarium or any of the other tools to check the position from your location, from one night to the next.

[Danack]

Thanks Mike.

Hmm. I was planning to do a sequence of photos in landscape of the eclipse with some terrain, but it looks like the moon's going to be really pretty high and it would make a lot more sense to do it in portrait mode.

[iceman]

Yeh the Moon will be quite high when it goes into eclipse. Unless you have a super wide lens and do widefield, you'll have to do portrait I reckon.

[ZeroID]

00:34 Monday morning here .... :shrug:

Might set the alarm but I'll betcha the clouds get here first ..:rolleyes:

[mithrandir]

Pardon? Dec 11 2011 is a Sunday.

Eclipse max is 14:32 UTC on the 10th. That is 03:32 NZDT on the 11th.

[naskies]

Forecast is for showers in Brisbane... I'll keep doing my anti-rain-dance and hope for the best.

[swannies1983]

Weather looks to be bad right across the eastern seaboard. A few showers expected here in Adelaide.

[iceman]

hmm not good. Who's travelling inland? :)

[WadeH]

I don't need to travel inland, thats where I work. On the edge of the Great Victoria Desert. If it gets cloudy here I'll be mightily annoyed!!
Also for us it's a more civilized 22:34 hrs at mid totallity.
And I've had our camp managers post the details on all notice boards for those interested. Fingures crossed. :whistle:

[Mattmcl]

Does anyone have recomendations for good viewing points around upper north Sydney? I was looking at the Golden Jubilee playing fileds at North Wahroonga as they seem to have a good clear view north over a large area of national park. thnx.

[Rob_K]

Had Plan B of heading out Hay/Deniliquin way if it looked iffy here but they've got the same forecast. Might be a miss unless something changes dramatically. :sadeyes:

Cheers -

[Liz]

Alas, am working the dreaded night duty, but 98% chance of cloud here so am sure I wont see it anyway.
Good luck all, sounds like you will be fine Wade. :)

[batema]

Could someone tell me the best way to image this event. Would you use a DSLR (400d) prime focus with W/O or my Phillips ToUcam 840???

Mark

[jjjnettie]

DSLR all the way Mark. :D

[naskies]

Rain is predicted for 26 of the next 28 days in Brisbane.... noooo!!

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/rain-predicted-for-26-of-next-28-days-20111206-1og3h.html

[h0ughy]

perths going to be clear - might find out the air fare?

[jjjnettie]

I'm willing to work through sucker holes.

[h0ughy]

ouch i just looked up the fares- might have to miss this one

[naskies]

Hmm interesting idea... I have enough frequent flyer points for any major/capital city in Australia, but they're all forecasted to be cloudy! Otherwise, I'd be seriously considering a weekend trip to Uluru...

[iceman]

The article is getting some traction in the last week or two which is great to see.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html

When I last looked a day or two ago it was at 10000 views, now it's over 13000. It will probably almost double before Saturday night if it continues the way it is.
It's great when people find what they're looking for on IceInSpace after the media picks up on an astronomical event like a Total Lunar Eclipse.

I hope we get some suckerholes. I'm not in a position to travel for it so just have to hope for the best.

[Analog6]

I think somebody already did! The weather forecast does NOT look good for Tweed Heads, where I am.

[tonycynic]

Organised the sunday as a day off and my new camera arrived yesterday,:) was going to mount it up to the 600mm mirror lens but looks like the clouds will be here instead.
Hope some of you get some clear skies.

[naskies]

I'm sorry! I bought an Astrotrac Travel System from another IIS member yesterday, thinking that with my newfound portability I could just hop on a plane to a city that's not cloudy. My heart sunk when I saw it's forecast to be cloudy for pretty much the whole country! :screwy:

[Poita]

Mudgee has rain forecast too :(

[swannies1983]

Adelaide has gone from "cloudy" to "partly cloudy." I will be doing this until then :prey2:

[Blue Skies]

Wouldn't bother - it's likely to be cloudy here, too.

[Vegeta]

Nooooooo!!!!! why do the clouds have to conviniently show up at the wrong time. :(
There's still a chance the clouds might clear, it's not saturday yet. God, please give us clear skies.:prey2:

[troypiggo]

Hmm, not looking promising for Brisvegas. :(

[Mariposa]

I've been preparing for this event, taking test shoots over several nights. But the weather forecast is announcing thunderstorms and rain from Friday to Sunday here in Mildura...checking the weather report every day to see if anything changes but the chances of rain on Saturday is more than 80%.
But then again, they can be totally wrong :prey2:

[Steffen]

It seems in Sydney the lunar eclipse is going to last all night (with clouds eclipsing the view of the Moon)… :(

Cheers
Steffen.

[LostBoyNZ]

Hi,

I've never seen a Lunar Eclipse before, so I'm really hoping for clear skies here (Christchurch, New Zealand). I'd love to take a photo of it too. I don't have any extremely long focal length lenses, but a 5D Mark II + 70-200mm with a 2x extender shouldn't be too bad I hope :)

Since I have work the next day however, I think I just have to get up and see only part of it. Ideally, that'd be when it's red. I was wondering if anyone could please help me figure out when it'll be red from the times in this article:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html

If I understand things right, it'll be about 3 to 4am?

Thanks very much! And I hope for clear skies for everyone!

[iceman]

Hi Graham, :welcome: to IceInSpace!

You're right, about 3-4am for Christchurch would be the best time.

Good luck!

I look forward to seeing your pics.

[iceman]

Over 20,000 now. Looking good!
I hope people get clear skies after all the build up. Even a sucker hole for an hour would be good.

[h0ughy]

yeah between 1 and 2am :thumbsup:

[Mal01]

From Weatherzone ...

"Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Peter Otto said the bureau did not provide 28-day forecasts because these could prove unreliable."

I think that comes under the category of diplomatic speak.

[mozzie]

skippysky is looking a bit more promessing,it may just clear enough for the eclipse.......fingers crossed

[CapturingTheNight]

I've been checking SkippySky every couple of hours for about a week now. Looking somewhat promising for a shot or two between some scattered clouds at the moment for my area *fingerscrossed* I don't think I will have clear enough conditions to get the shot I really want to do though. Last eclipse in June I did a widefield shot when the moon was near the centre of the Milky Way (See attached). For this one being in Taurus I wanted to do a similar image stretching from the Pleiades to The Great Orion Nebula. I hope someone can do this image if my luck runs out.
105220

[mozzie]

nice shot greg....
weather wise you just never know it could clear up and be a cracker of a night

[PCH]

jjj,

I also have a 400D. Would you care to give us some clues as to what lens and settings might be best for capturing this. My results have been a bit average (read: hopeless) so far, and I'd really like to get something worthwhile from this. :D

I only have three lenses other than a macro;
stock 18-55
stock 70-300
EF 70-200 f/4L IS

I have a tripod on which I could point one of these afocally through my 12" dob.

Thoughts welcomed :thumbsup:


Cheers

[mithrandir]

Unless Sydney gets better weather tomorrow, this might be the most interesting moon shot I'll get. A fairly complete ring around it. There are too many lights around to get the ring and not blow out the moon.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Unfortunately :sadeyes: The Meteorological Bureau is predicting cloud across most of Australia. There is a large low pressure system of South Eastern Australia and also of WA. So we may not be that lucky :sadeyes:

But, I still try :D

[Mliss]

oh the cruelty!! is there anywhere clear in Australia??

keeping optimistic though ... there's still time, even if it's only a little. :jump2:

[Liz]

SkippySky predicts unfortunate occurrances for Townsville, though the previous 3 nights have clear here. See how we go, but a lot of people in the same boat.

[iceman]

30,000 now!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html

I remember with the fantastic total lunar eclipse in August 2007, it received heaps of media attention and Triple J mentioned IceInSpace. The article received over 120,000 views - most of them in the final 2 days before the eclipse.

I hope the skies clear and we get some fantastic views like we did that night.

[Kevnool]

Screw on those G7 cloud filters for a cloud free night.

[msshhhh]

i don't believe this... yesterday it was sunny with blue skies. today, completely overcast!!!

http://sydneystargazers.com/2011/09/10/weather-forecast-for-sydney-and-around-australia-%e2%80%93-saturday/

looks like we should all head over to perth! sydney seems to be clearing up a little later tonight.. so i'm keeping fingers crossed!

[Ric]

It's about 50/50 here at the moment. Weather Zone is also suggesting intermittent rain after 9:00 pm.

I've got the camera setup and ready to go so for now it watch and wait.

Hopefully I'll be able to grab a few images.

Good luck to everyone tonight. :thumbsup:

[pgc hunter]

Don't think we'll see it here. Thunderstorms are already brewing over the Melbourne area

[Rob_K]

Bucketed rain this morning. :sadeyes: But there's actually some sunshine now! :D But there's more rain forecast. :sadeyes: But by midnight there should be no cloud! :D But there is fog forecast. :sadeyes:

:lol: Not a hobby for manic-depressives hey?! Ah well, I'll take what comes, good luck everyone, hope to see some nice pics. :thumbsup:

Cheers (I think, or maybe not, or...) -

[seanliddelow]

I will be viewing the eclipse at Kings Park in Perth across from Frasers restaurant with the Astronomical Society of Western Australia. The sky MAY be relatively cloud-free as Skippy Sky (http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/) is indicating.

[jjjnettie]

We have a severe storm warning current. :(
And Weather Zone is showing a dramatic increase in cloud over the entire continent.
But, ever the optimist.....I'm charging the batteries to the camera anyway just in case there are sucker holes.

[pgc hunter]

Storms here aswell. Satpic offers no hope of clear skies. Who knows, might get a sucker or two. Melbourne has a habit of suddenly disposing of crap weather at random times....

[Ianska]

So in Skippy Sky, red is bad yeah?

[Kevnool]

Sorry JJJ you would of had some great images.
But you never know there may just be a break in the traffic.
Heres hoping for you all.

Cheers Kev.

[mozzie]

raining here all day!!!!! going to have a go at sketching .....weather doesn't look good :shrug::shrug:but you never know...
put everything in pod ready !!!!!

[iceman]

Our forecast is "mostly cloudy", and it has cleared a bit this afternoon - I can see sun and patches of blue sky.

We might be lucky and get some sucker holes!

[Paul Haese]

Lots of cloud here in SA, but we are travelling north for a 100km or so and see how that goes. There is a chance there will be scattered cloud by total eclipse; so we will take our chances.

Best of luck to those making the effort to capture the event. WA looks the best chance on the Satellite pic.

[Rob P]

Just issued thunderstorm and flash flood warning here in central Qld. 8/8 cloud cover so it'll be a movie night here! :shrug:

[Poita]

Almost I chance here, wall to wall grey.

[RobF]

I'm semi-optimistic. The BOM models and IR satellite views shows light cloud and breaks after this afternoons storms in Brissy. Possible by 11pm we might still snatch some peaks.

(WHERE is that emoticon for fingers-crossed dammit.....:question:)

[lacad01]

Fingers crossed it might clear up, sort of looks promising at the moment...

[peterl]

Heavy cloud over mid north coast at 6.55 pm here.
Still hoping!!

[ballaratdragons]

Totally clouded out with rain and occasional thunderstorms :sadeyes:

and I am supposed to be broadcasting this Eclipse 'Live' on NightSkiesNetwork.
Ain't gonna happen :(

I doubt with all this going on that anyone except Perth will see it:

[multiweb]

Not game enough to set up the scope but I'll have my NEX-5 with a 200mm lens see if I can catch any happy snap through a sucker hole. Looks pretty damp and miserable here in Sydney west too.

[stephenb]

I've passed this link around to several people who are interested. Well written article, Mike.

Not looking too flash in Melbourne at 20:00 hrs.

[DavidU]

Excellent ! It's raining here in Melb.......:lol:


:mad2:

[iceman]

Looking reasonable on the central coast. Patchy, but I'm sure I'll get some glimpses.

[BLiTZWiNG]

Totally greyed out here, and apparently down south of the airport too. A few more thunder storms on the way according to the bom.

I blame jjjnettie.

[jjjnettie]

Had one bad storm so far this evening, and now have another 2 on the way.
I live in that town with the two arrows pointing to it. :(
Due to hit at 8.05pm.
With luck there will be clear skies afterwards. fingers crossed

[Kevnool]

Hang in there jjj.
Persistance should hopefully pay off.

Cheers Kev.

[jjjnettie]

Oi....I's done nothing wrong!!
It's been weeks since I bought new gear.

[TrevorW]

What will be the best time to view this in WA tonight

:question::thanx:

[iceman]

Beautiful here on the central coast. Crystal clear!

[acropolite]

we have some moonlight behind clouds, maybe with luck we'll get a clear patch around midnight.

[MikeyB]

Perfect observing conditions in Perth: clear and warm, with a gentle breeze.:2thumbs:
Sorry, t'othersiders - we feel your pain.:sad:

[MikeyB]

10pm to 11pm

[BLiTZWiNG]

I just looked... I can see the moon through the clouds... must be a thin veil!

[bloodhound31]

Totally greyed out in Canberra... :(

[Steffen]

Looking pretty good at my place, mostly clear with only wisps of cloud here and there 105250

I hope it lasts…

Cheers
Steffen.

[naskies]

Hmmm... the moon is in a clear patch of the sky right now where I am. Talk about messing with us!

[Kevnool]

No sign of luna here in the Silver City.
To many clouds here

Cheers Kev.

[icytailmark]

Sydney has cleared up its a miracle!!!!!!!!

[Irish stargazer]

Clear over north Sydney at 10.20pm. Let's hope it remains so.

[ballaratdragons]

About 1 hour 20 minutes till it starts and it is still raining here :sadeyes:

From Weatherzone:

[iceman]

I'll be uploading images to SLOOH, and probably Facebook too :P

http://events.slooh.com/

Here's one of the test uploads.

[stephenb]

(That'd be my fault David - wheeled out my scope on the verandah for a clean today :lol:)

Good luck everyone else. Look forward to some pics.

[Rob_K]

Fingers crossed, broken sky here, maybe enough to get glimpses.

Cheers -

[Mariposa]

big thunderstorm here at about 8 pm, then the clouds sort of started to break, I can see the moonshine behind de clouds, there is a glimpse of hope now.

[Matt Wastell]

Well, we have had rain all day in Brisbane - but I saw a glimpse of the Moon about an hour ago so I set up my LX90 with the Nikon (now 10pm)
I must be an optimist and hope to get some partial and total images - I was hoping for a great sequence series as I have been practicing with my set up for months now - oh the pain!

[Matt Wastell]

I may get lucky - there have been some breaks in the clouds and I have started taking some snaps......fingers crossed!

[mozzie]

heavy cloud here.... no sign of the moon

still hopeful :(:(

remembering back to june when last eclipse sitting in vehicle from 3.00am in pelting rain

[Helo]

Beautiful clear sky here on the Sunshine Coast - soooo lucky that the storms passed over earlier. Back to the camera!

[bartman]

I'M EXCITED!!!!
No clouds.....Just waiting for Mr Moon to peak its face above my roof top!
Just taking some happy snaps of Jupiter.....not really getting any good shots, but practice makes perfect..
Bartman

[naskies]

Boo... a small storm cell just formed nearby and is now passing overhead. Hope others are having more luck! My camera's all ready to go as soon as it clears up.

[pgc hunter]

Eclipse time!!! Right on cue!

[BLiTZWiNG]

Looking really good here!!

I blame jjjnettie.

[mishku]

Oh Sab, I'll fess up - it's my fault... I bought a new (for me) scope today. Sorry kids!! Should have waited til tomorrow :)

[Retrograde]

Was quite clear earlier but clouds have now come across. Can still see the moon peeking throough now and then.

[bloodhound31]

Got a few shots away through sucker holes. Totally greyed out again now.
:(

[JuniorAstro]

Cloud cleared outside my place about 30minutes ago but it seems to be coming back over-.-, any other obs from brisbane? If so hows ur sky looking?

-Jason

[norm]

12:18am - not looking too good in Sydney. Clouds rolling in from the south, south west :(

Norm

[lolthrash]

looks absolutely fantastic here in Newcastle, not a cloud in sight.

[rider]

Thornlands (Brisbane Bayside) is total cloud and still raining on and off.
- watching it on SLOOH

[h0ughy]

rb says great family time with houghy:rofl:

[Mark_Heli]

Shot from Sydney at ~midnight through camera (no telescope).

Lots of clouds over Sydney in the past 30 minutes..

[MACCA350]

Well we've got rain, lightning, thunder and the thickest blanket of cloud here in Melbourne........no chance of seeing the moon let alone getting out the telescope and camera.

I've been relegated to watching the event on slooh.com :(


Cheers

[big_dav_2001]

Plenty of cloud here... All setup to try a few 'sucker hole' shots but doesn't look too hopeful..

Davin

[gregbradley]

Its streaming live video from Sydney Observatory on ninemsn.com.au

Greg.

[mozzie]

clouds opened up for a minute or so,was able to see the moon and eclipse
heavy cloud rolling back in....pod ready to open if any sign of clearing weather fingers crossed

[swannies1983]

Nothing but clouds in Adelaide. Enjoy it for those who can see it.

[bloodhound31]

Show's over for Canberra.

[michaellxv]

you can watch it here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8947885/Watch-live-lunar-eclipse.html or events.slooh.com (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/events.slooh.com)

[spacezebra]

Yes, we had a glimpse here in Albury, but only a glimpse :-(

Cheers Petra d.

[ace70]

Clouds have cleared, just in time for totality, woohoo

[rider]

bayside brizvegus
One long gap in the clouds - just closed over as total arrived. at least we got a view for a while and saw it go red.

[BLiTZWiNG]

Lovely and clear here. Moon is very dark red now. Can't take photos with my crappy phone because its... uh, too dark.

[Rick Petrie]

Absolutely awesome here on the Central Coast.:eyepop:
Geoffro (Inmykombi)and I had telescope set up and have watched from the start to totality in brilliant seeing, I kid you not. Not a cloud in sight at the moment??
We got some photos afocal and the red moon looked not unlike Mars.
Don't think we will stay up to see end.
Some one around here would have got some good shots I'm sure.

[GTB_an_Owl]

what a wonderful sight it is

i wonder what the ancients thought of such an event?

geoff

[swannies1983]

Might get the back end of the event. Two eclipses this year yet both clouded out. Spewing :sadeyes:

[Retrograde]

This just a quick pic as it came out of the camera - no processing:

[BLiTZWiNG]

Very nice! That's what I saw.

The moon has now started un-eclipsing.

[naskies]

Finally! Some clear(ish) skies on the south side of Brisbane. I had given up hope of seeing the totality at all, so it was a pleasant surprise to catch a few frames. Did anyone else see that bright meteor streak across the sky just below the moon mid-totality? Anyone capture a wide field during totality including Orion?

[ballaratdragons]

Still raining here and I have missed it all, but I was watching Martin Ferlito in Sydney broadcasting the event on Night Skies Network, and also watching on Slooh live from Hawaii, and the NineMSN show from Sydney Observatory.

All great.

Not as good as watching the real thing outside but aleast I got to see it live online :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

LOLOL Hasn't it been brilliant?? Who would have thought after all that bad weather.
I have a couple of wide field totality shots that included Orion. I'll get them off the other camera tomorrow.

[swannies1983]

A 1 min clear patch is all I got :(

[BLiTZWiNG]

I totally agreed, pulled that out of nowhere!! Looking forward to the pics!

[mozzie]

wow!!!!! in total heavy cloud right on totality the heavens cleared for an hour and a half.raced down and opened up pod for some telescope and bino viewing absoultly fantastic :D:D
just when about to give up -persistence pays off and was well rewarded..taken some very amature shots with my phone in the eyepiece see how they turn out...to the next event transit of venus can't wait...

[netwolf]

finally some observing done, I was not sure the clouds would clear but I setup my camera on tripod and prayed. First a few glimpses then finally it cleared for a while, still some cloud drifting in but enough clear gaps to enjoy it. A great night.

[naskies]

Clouds are back just as it ends... great un-eclipsing sequence if it weren't for the block wide power glitch and my sister's dog almost knocking over my rig.

[Rob_K]

Sky got worse as the night went on - drove up a mountain to get above the fog but couldn't get above the cloud! :P Missed totality completely, bucketing rain again now.

Cheers -

[Poita]

I actually got to see most of it with only some light cloud blocking it for a few minutes. Before and after it was solid black clouds, it is nice to have a win!

[naskies]

My effort: 100% crop from my 5DmkII at 200 mm on an Astrotrac.

[iceman]

Was a great night! Will write more to tonight. On the train to Sydney with the family :)

[acropolite]

No go here in Tas, heavy clouds and rain over the whole period. Good to know at least some of you managed to see the event.

[Irish stargazer]

Got to see most of it until about 1.30am when thin cloud obliterated it. These shots were taken with a Canon 450D and a Megrez 72mm refractor.

[Mcredgum]

I couldn't believe how good it was here on the Central Coast. The viewing was perfect the whole eclipse. Awsome

[erick]

Well done to those that observed and photographed. The clouds weren't the problem in Melbourne - we just couldn't see through the rain!! :sadeyes:

[Analog6]

It was awful here! Overcast all night. I kept going out to check but never even SAW the moon! And I had been so looking forward to this one - as I thought before hand - nice temperature, clear summer skies etc. Very browned off stargazer am I!

[Zincberg]

Had a good night/ morning of it.
Ended up at Terrigal.. even with the salt spray, we had a great viewing. (some nice company too!)

Photos with a Nikon D7000 (+ an ED80 for the moon one)

[Groboz]

Good seeing up here in Darwin last night, just a few small clouds wafting by. Had the new binos out (Canon 12x36 II IS) and it was a bonus for us that it all occurred at a reasonably civil hour :)

[GOTO]

Whoohoo, we got to see at Sydney Observatory though the clouds gave us quite a scare just before totality.
Cheers
Geoff

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e185/Tokyo1989/Dec10-11eclipse.jpg

[stephenb]

Well done to all those who captured some great images :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: it sure was JJJ and we kept each other company in the chat room too :thumbsup: It looked so preeeettyyyyyy :D

[Paul Haese]

Totally clouded out in SA. On a punt we went up to the observatory because the BOM forecast and even Skippy Sky said it would be partly cloudy. Both were totally wrong. We saw some of the partial phase going in and some of it going out, but never once saw the totality phase. I feel sorry for the guys that we dragged out with us. One came 2.5 hours with his son to see the event and to get an image or two. Pretty disappointed for them. I saw the one earlier in the year through high cloud and got some nice images of it; so I was not too fussed.

I am a little miffed at the various weather sites that cannot even predict 8/8 cloud. If super computers cannot predict 6 hours worth of modelling well that says a lot of the science to me.

Now for the next one.

[naskies]

Short animation of moon coming out of the eclipse. The two dogs kept bumping the pier so it's a bit jerky unfortunately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yd6iW5NxXU

[Allan_L]

The few scattered clouds around the Tuggerah Lakes cleared right on cue at 10:30 and the skies remained clear thereafter.

Very nice observing conditions.

Together with assorted hoots and hollers from assorted neighbours.
Too Good! :thumbsup:

Al

[pgc hunter]

No eclipse here. Copped a direct hit by an electrical storm right on totality.

[iceman]

Wow what a night it was.

It was so nice to see the clear skies after the crap weather Sydney has had in the last week. Not a cloud in the sky all night.

It was a flurry of activity for me during the night, as a few days before, SLOOH contacted me to ask if I could supply images for their live feed. After installing and setting up the required software yesterday morning, I did a few test images last night and they worked great.

The seeing was fantastic - and thankfully, the Moon must've been close to apogee, because I could fit the whole Moon in the FOV of the sensor with only a few pixels to spare top and bottom. Most times, I can't fit the whole Moon so I have to do a mosaic.

But with uploading to SLOOH, it was great to be able to take the image using Canon remote shooting software, save it into a specific directory and have it automatically resize, sharpen, crop and upload to SLOOH.

I had the SLOOH events website running with the commentary in the background, while I was taking an image every 3 minutes for them, in the middle of watching IceInSpace get crushed under the load of visitors to the site, as well as posting progress images on Facebook and Google+ every 15 minutes.

At around 1:20am the Moon went behind a tree. I knew it was coming, but I was thankful it happened after full totality began. I was going to move my whole setup about 15m to the West, but at 1:30am when I looked at where I was going to put it, the Moon still wouldn't be visible for another 20-30 minutes, and knowing I had to get up at 6am, I called it a night.

It was just a fantastic experience though - completely different from my previous lunar eclipses. August 2007 I was on the edge of Tuggerah Lake, and early this year in June I was up in Brisbane for work standing on the edge of the river overlooking the city with nothing but camera and tripod.

The Moon was quite low in the North and some widefield type images may have even worked this time, but I was glad to have tracking - especially when my exposures needed to be 1-2 seconds as it went into totality.
I just plonked the mount down though and didn't do any alignment, so had to continually use the hand controller to keep the Moon in the frame.

The eclipse article (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-619-0-0-1-0.html) ended up with > 60,000 views. Over 40,000 of those were yesterday alone.

If IceInSpace hadn't been crashing and timing out during that hour before midnight, I'm sure it would be another 10,000 higher!

Was a great night!

Thanks for sharing all the great pictures! I'll post some final versions in the next few days once I gather them together.

[h0ughy]

well Andrew and i managed to have a great evening of viewing , here are the results (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=796435#post796435)

[narky]

Arrived in Perth just in time for the eclipse.
Had no idea when it was happening so I was pretty excited to spot all the scopes in Kings Park last night.

Just wanted to say thanks to Sean (and his awesome dad) for letting me look through his scope all night.

The eclipse was great, but my first nebula .. wow !! :eyepop:

Hope you see this thread. If only my phone hadn't died every second I tried to put in your username (and if only I'd given you the right one).

if anyone knows Sean Liddlesomething (please PM him for me and direct him to this post). :D

:thanx:

[Irish stargazer]

Another image from last night at around 1.10am This time cropped from the original frame.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6491122715_e04a95beb8_b.jpg

[Rob P]

Heavy storms around Mackay. A few suburbs blacked out which would've been a blessing but the cloud cover only allowed poor observation. Roll on 2014.

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: some nice shots guys :thumbsup:

[Visionoz]

Howdy Sam

Glad you were there too! Was there with the over-sized Canon 400mm f2.8L lens, Canon 5D MkII cam - btw Sean is "seanliddelow" here in IIS (his username), you can PM him

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[Paul Haese]

Mike SLOOH contacted me about two weeks ago too. I declined knowing that I would be on the move. I am glad to see they got a few people to upload for them. Did they talk to you about Venus transit?

[pgc hunter]

Yep same deal in Melbourne. Intense lightning from around 1am to 2.30am, the storm cell passed directly overhead and some bolts literally covered half the sky lighting up the landscape as if it were broad daylight :eyepop:

[ZeroID]

Morning All, :hi:
I was lucky, got a gap in the clouds from about 2 am till 4 am. When I say 'gap' I mean I got gaps and lots of haze but apparently I was about the only astronomer to have gaps and get pix in NZ.
Took about 45 frames with the DSLR with 420mm telephoto mounted on the 80 Achro on a tripod. (Expected rain etc so did not have the 10" up to go, this was def 'Grab & Go' :D ).

Six pics are over on www.astrobin.com (http://www.astrobin.com) under my ZeroID name if you want to see. Very hazy up high, multiple cloud layers, gusty winds so very little detail in the shots but some nice colouration. Most of the latter ones were shot through thin fast cloud.
Going to have a good look at the rest tonight and see if anything more can be rescued.
Rain for the rest of the week so not much else to do. :sadeyes:

But at least I saw and photographed it which is more than most were able to doover here.
And beginning to get the hang of the astrobin site, very good. Thanks Salvatore. :thumbsup:

[spacezebra]

WOW!!!! Stunning capture Andrew.

Cheers Petra d.

[Mike21]

The details of the shot are in a thread I posted by the same name in the "Solar System" section.

[netwolf]

This is my humble attempt at capturing this event. Still working on it to try and center all the frames.

http://youtu.be/bHEOwg9ZXQ8

[Ric]

A nice selection of images Fahim.

It was totally clouded out down my way.

[ZeroID]

Put this together from a few of the shots I got.
Exposure ranges from 1/60th @ ISO400 to 3 secs @ ISO1600

[netwolf]

Brent, thats a good run, and well presented. I now wish i had spent bitmore time preparing. It was alla bit rushed at the end with highly doubtfoul clear skies. Never the less i am greatfull for being able to enjoy with family, seeing as somany missed out.