(Viewed 3,419 times)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Total Lunar Eclipse Observation with the Chicago Astronomer

08 October 2014

Early Wednesday morning - the 8th of October, we will experience the second lunar eclipse of 2014...and if clear, will share the event with our Chicago Astronomer fans and visitors.  But as part of the Adler Planetarium Telescope crew, I will don on my Adler hat and set-up the C11 with fellow museum facilitators for this event.

No...not a "Blood Moon" or "Supermoon", this is media hype.  The Moon will indeed be 5.3% larger, but not all all perceptible to the observer.  This will be the second of the four "Tetrads" that occur in 6 month intervals.  April 15, 2014 was our last one, (Chicago got snowed out).  Our next will occur on April 4, 2015, and the last of the tetrad sequence will be on Sept. 28 2015. Most of the U.S will get to view this eclipse and Chicago will experience the 1/2 half of the event nicely.

We will start the session at 3:00 am and the expected large crowds will enjoy the celestial show till 7:00 am... with plenty of telescopes on-site to view this event. It won't hit the center of the deepest of the umbra, but it's still a total 100% eclipse.  Watch for the lunar disk transform to a nice coppery hue.

Here is my montage of a nice Total Lunar Eclipse in 2008....

As a side attraction, the planet Uranus will only be about 1 degree away, (a finger's width), from the Moon at this time. Jupiter will also be greatly visible in our morning sky, absent from most observers since spring. Perhaps I'll slew the scope every now and then to show our visitors.  The minor Draconid meteor shower will be at it's peak and perhaps offer a few bright displays during this event.


The Technical details:

This won't be a high-in-the-sky lunar eclipse event.  With the horizon being 0 degrees and straight up overhead being 90 degrees...the start of the event will be only about four fists high.....

The Moon will be at 238 degrees along the azimuth (West SouthWest) and 38 degrees high at the start of the event, sliding into the Earth's shadow from right to left - with the "bottom" of the Moon darker than the top.   The lunar orb will stay in totality for almost an hour.  

First contact with the Earth's outer shadow, (Penumbra) will be at 3:17 am, but it will not be till about 3:45am that observers will start to see any significant darkening when the lunar limb starts to enter the Earth's inner shadow, (umbra) - and the start of totality will be about 5:25 am at 263 degrees in Azimuth, (almost due west) and 15.9 degrees high.

The height or mid-point of the eclipse will occur at about 5:55 am when the Moon will become immersed as much as it is going to be, but only be 11 degrees high, or about a with of a fist held at arms length.  Depending on where one is standing, this may be the last we see of the eclipse, as it starts to sink behind obstacles along our close horizon.  This could make for some very nice skyline photographs... 

Totality will end at 6:22 am at 272 degrees in Azimuth (west) at a very low 6 degrees high.

Then, the Moon will exit the Earth's shadow exactly as it entered, but Chicagoans will not see the end of the eclipse, as it will set before the end of the event at 7:00 am at 278 degrees in Azimuth.  The actual end of this lunar eclipse will be at 8:32 am, when the Moon has sunk 16 degrees below the horizon.

Astronomical twilight begins at 5:22 am and the skies will brighten up through Nautical and Civil phases quickly.

But really, if you've observed the 1st half of the eclipse, you have been part of this fine celestial alignment....


Here is a graphic of the October 8th event from Lunar Master Chicago Astronomer Curt:

See Curt's data on this and other lunar phenomena here:
www.curtrenz.com/moon


Let's  all concentrate for a clear morning next Wednesday...! 

[Centaur]

Some of my lunar eclipse timing predictions are slightly different from what is published elsewhere. I use the more sensible "French Rule" for shadow sizes, rather than the traditional one used by most other sources. In addition I take into account the oblate shapes of the Earth and Moon. Virtually all other sources assume those bodies are perfectly spherical. That being said, the shadow edges are not sharp and precision of less than a few minutes is somewhat unnecessary. Some sources predict timings in seconds, which is rather ridiculous.

The altitudes and tilts for the Moon in my charts are ideally for observers at Chicago's Alder Planetarium. For the altitude of the Moon I allow for atmospheric refraction; some sources do not.: www.CurtRenz.com/moon

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

We are a solid go for this morning's Total Lunar Eclipse by the Lakefront.

The weather looks like it will cooperate for this event and we will be out on-site in the wee hours Wednesday morning.

Be there.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A deep Total Eclipse by the lakefront....

All good Astronomers and sky lovers got up in the early hours in the middle of the work/school week to be sure and catch this alignment of celestial bodies. The Chicago Astronomers joined the Adler Planetarium telescope crew for this event, setting up scopes just outside of the Adler building by 3:00 am....

We set-up at our usual Chicago Astronomer site, familiar with our angles and alignments, Chicago Astronomers Chuck & Regina, Rich, Bill, Steve and myself were ready well before the event started.  I kept the main C11 tube free for public viewing, but reserved the C102mm refractor for imaging...which worked well...

I thought that the eclipse started ahead of schedule, with the curvature of the Earth quickly displaying against the lunar disk, but we shared views through our scopes despite the threat of early clouds...

A full montage of the lunar immersion later on in this post, but the progression of the eclipse was unfolding nicely...

I had an annoying street lamp that got in the way for about 10 minutes, but it made for a nice pic...

...looks like the Moon is illuminated with a spotlight...

This is probably the darkest lunar eclipse I have ever observed.

I was interviewed live on Chicago's WBBM Newsradio morning program....

...and a brief video appearance on the Chicago Tribune website...

Enthusiastic fans and friends....

The Adler crew set-up scopes just outside of the south Entrance.....

...and what was this all about....

Losing the Moon behind trees, I get a a last shot of the fully eclipsed moon...

 

Dawn lightened up our sky as the Moon slipped away behind obstruction along the horizon...

As I was breaking down the site and stowing the gear, the Moon made a re-appearance from behind the trees and provided a nice photo op...

Along with the Adler, we attended to over 500 visitors to our scopes on this early morning....

The tired, but satisfied eclipse crew....

Next....the Partial Solar Eclipse on the 23rd of October....be there.

[Paulie pchris00]

Outstanding.

This was the first eclipse I've observed from start through totality, and I spent it alone down at Conway for the wide open horizon. I agree that timings were ahead of the generic geocentric published times, but I haven't compared my notes to Curt's times for Chicago. I expect closer agreement once I do.

I had expected the Moon to be brighter during totality, and was surprised just how dark it got. It went from the brightest full Moon of the year to dark enough to see the winter Milky Way. I see practically no clouds until the twilight started, revealing cloud cover to the north, with a few scattered clouds elsewhere.

I'd been waiting since February 2008 to see a total lunar eclipse- every eclipse with totality over our region had been snowed out. I wasn't disappointed. If this hadn't been my first total lunar eclipse since taking up astronomy, I would have loved to have joined the crew in the city, but since it was my first, I relished observing it alone. Will try to post my full story as soon as I can.