Lunar Eclipse - a visual report

[DougAdams]

Visual report - rather out of place here at ImagesInSpace

Left work at 6:20pm and could see the full moon rising ahead of me as I headed up Collins Street to Southern Cross station. After gazing at cloud all day, the skies seemed to be clearing - a good sign.

Off the train at Oakleigh and the 4km trudge home - not good. It was after 7pm and the moon was obliterated by cloud. Listening to Perry Vlahos on the Derek Guille program as I walked home - didn't sound much better in Richmond.

Nearly home at 7:50pm, totality would be just beginning. It looked more promising now - wind from the west/southwest and some generous gaps in the clouds appearing. I got home and threw the observing chair and binoculars out the back door - ready for instant action.

8:15pm - almost clear now - reclining in the chair and having a look through the binoculars. The thing that strikes me is how much more "pink" the moon looks compared to the view I had last time several years ago. The lasting impression from that eclipse was the moon going a deep, ruddy red colour. This eclipse it seems to be much lighter in shade. I assume this is due to the refractive nature of the atmosphere, how much junk is up there, etc.

Janet arrives home at 8:30 and tells me to get the scope out. I glance warily to the west but it seems clear. Scorpius and Jupiter are ablaze overhead thanks to the muted moon. Five minutes later the scope is up and a 11mm Nagler is popped in. Breathtaking view - the moon is the colour of pink champagne, absolutely framed by field stars. One rather bright star is just coming out of occultation (8:35pm - must find out what it was) and as I observe, I can see the lunar disk leaving it. It's strange to see a full moon framed by faint stars.

We take turns at the eyepiece picking out features on the surface - Tycho was obvious, five craterlets in Plato (Erik? ... okay, not really) - weird seeing the familar features illuminated by unfamilar lighting!

Rather dubious looking clouds racing up from the west at around 9pm, so we break it down and head inside for dinner. Quality 45 minutes observing - that is 45 minutes more than I thought it was going to be on the walk home.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by DougAdams

....five craterlets in Plato (Erick? ... okay, not really)....

Cheeky! Well, I didn't see them in the 20x80s!

Great report from under challenging sky conditions - I went north and left the clouds behind!

Eric

[Uchtungbaby]

Yeah I thought the red was fascinating. At first I thought it wasn't going to change colour, but it eventually did. At one stage I'm sure I detected an element of blue in the red as well. It looked a little bit like a rainbow. Did I mention that the moon rose out of a rainbow at the location where I viewed the eclipse?

[Jupiter]

Nice report, the highlights for me, I had a chance to give my pentax xw 10mm its first run, the best view was from my 26 mm plossl though, it was nice sitting in my backyard and hearing the ppl next door say, 'Its started', I think a lot of ppl became astronomers last night even if only for the night, even the old lady across the road was looking, one regret of mine was I was a bit slow setting up, and as the eclipse moved on, I wished I'd set up in a local park, it would've allowed ppl to see the moon through a scope which I'm sure most ppl in this town wouldn't have done before.
As the sky darkened it allowed me a chance to take a look at Jupiter, and Lagoon, Triffid and Swan, all of them through the Pentax 10mm, I can't wait to try this ep out on a dark site, I think it is going to be something special for me.
As someone else said on here its in the top 5 events easily, the colours were awesome, the timing was perfect too, and on top of that the neighborhood dogs stopped barking as the moon slipped into shade.