Well what a great Lunar Eclipse we all got to see!
I managed to get around 200 shots, and my brother came up and video taped it with his JVC Camera off the tripod, and things generally went pretty well....
But then on wednesday morning a radio announcer on the local station here took calls from people who saw it and they said it was awesome and pretty to watch etc etc, the radio announcer then went on to say that he thought it was a "fizzer"....
And it got me thinking....WHAT DID HE EXPECT??? FIREWORKS, BACKGROUND MUSIC, AN EXPLOSION, STUNT PLANES????????
I just can't understand that....
Talking to one fellow earlier this year about Comet McNaught and he said he didnt go out to look at it cos Halleys Comet was all hyped up and turned into a "fizzer" and that put him off seeing this one.......i thought, hmmmm, yep,22 years gone and he's still not over it!?
I told he missed the most spectacular comet since 1965!! It was nothing short of amazing!!
I believe that other radio announcers around the country thought that Comet McNaught was also a "fizzer"........
The comment I've heard most from the "general public" is that it took much longer than they expected. I think they thought it would be over pretty quickly, but with totality lasting 90 minutes I think some got bored during it
I can see the point some people are making when they call these events 'fizzers'. Fortunately I only heard one person say it during the eclipse and two people during McNaught.
They expected to see 'things happening'. Not the slow, almost imperceptable changes.
With McNaught the two people concerned expected to see the Comet race across the sky like a fiery Meteor. The one person at the Eclipse was expecting to see the Moon get covered, turn red, and get uncovered in a spectacular fast way.
To some people, slow is boring and unexciting. Nothing moves, nothing goes 'razzle-dazzle', and nothing really happens.
The comment I've heard most from the "general public" is that it took much longer than they expected. I think they thought it would be over pretty quickly, but with totality lasting 90 minutes I think some got bored during it
Maybe they compare it to SOLAR eclipses which only last for a few minutes......??
But then on wednesday morning a radio announcer on the local station here took calls from people who saw it and they said it was awesome and pretty to watch etc etc, the radio announcer then went on to say that he thought it was a "fizzer"....
The radio announcer probably hadn't considered the motions of the objects involved in order to produce the eclipse. In isolation, a shadow on a white disc is not that thrilling.