Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 15, 2006 4:52:13 GMT -6
The Chicago Astronomers Observe the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
It's always an anxious day prior to an eclipse, making sure the day's activities are wrapped up, getting equipment ready and hoping for clear skies.
Everything fell into place, and I was going to see an eclipse this day! I arrived at the lakefront behind the Adler Planetarium at around 5:15 pm, and considering the fierce winds blowing, I used the Doane Observatory as a wind break. It did help a bit, but the gusts were pretty bad at times. The darkening sky was pretty and clouds were painted deep colors. I sat down on my folding chair and just enjoyed the quiet moment by myself and in preparation to the intense observation to come. Great being an astronomer, eh?
Earlier, I sent out a mass cell phone text messages to my local members about the event, and received confirmations of participation. It's always better in sharing a session with friends.
Chicago Astronomer Steve met up with me bundled to defy the late winter winds, and so we began our vigil. I was first to spot the faint reddish orb peeking over the horizon and we focused our equipment to it. Squashed, bubbling and deformed, the Moon clearly showed evidence of eclipse activity...excellent!...
I use a simple Kodak digital camera, held by hand to the eyepiece, nothing fancy, but the results are quite cool. (Note: I adjusted the orientation on some images, and on others I did not...so please look at your monitor in a mirror and stand on your head on some...
)
It rose quickly from its hiding place and put space very fast between it and the horizon. I attempted to take pics as best I could, but the winds were fighting me and making it difficult.
Some images are taken from my 4.5", but others are shot through my new the 60mm finder scope...(which is quite cool I must say.)
The view of the crimson Moon was great, playing among the distant clouds and shimmering in the telescope and binoculars, it was quite awe inspiring.
Steve takes a peek at the Moon while I fiddle around with camera, eyepieces and radio...gotta have tunes! Not many people this time around, too cold, not many knew of the event and besides...we were kinda hidden behind the observatory.
As it got higher, the darkened edge was not as noticeable now, but with a trained eye it was there to enjoy.
Steve kept announcing to me that here comes a jet across the face, take the shot!!!...and I kept missing it. The camera was recycling, I was not ready, not focused etc.... But, I did mange to get this one of a small twin prop aircraft in silhouette...
Chicago Astronomer Fred and his wife joined in on the session and always good to have their smiles and prescence...
* I had attached a polarizer filter between the focuser and secondary...makes for good contrast.
On this next one, I increased the contrast in post-production and adjusted other factors and I think it came out nice...
Excellent shading and the semi-bite looks nice.
Now the Moon was getting brighter and lighter as it rose and the eclipse effect was hardly noticeable now...
But, as Chicago Astronomer Tim pointed out in another thread here, ( astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Lunar&thread=1142386116&page=1 ) the Moon was exhibiting extraordinary bright light pillars shooting out from the top and the bottom. At first, I thought the winds gunked up my eyes and I was seeing things. I pointed the phenomenon to the others, and they too witnessed the pillars. I "eclipsed" the Moon with my thumb and the pillars were even more evident! This was quite cool!... ;D
Clouds were heavier now and the wisps passing in front made it quite errie and made a good shot...
With my simple digital camera, I was not able to capture the pillars, but as the clouds from time to time totally covered the face of the Moon, but the pillars stood out dramatically from behind the cloudcover.
Chicago Astronomer Linda stopped by on the way home for some observation and brought along her binoculars. Glad she stopped by to share her enthusiasm with us all...
But now, the cloud cover was getting thicker and the sucker holes were less frequent. And so at about 7:45 pm, we called it a night...satisfied on a good urban penumbral lunar eclipse under our belts...and documented on the Chicago Astronomer.
#Yay#
