Lunar Eclipse 8th November

It's on Saturday night (the night between Saturday and Sunday) :lol:

Hi,

Heres an interesting project from Pete Lawrence that appeared on uk.sci.astronomy that some of you may be inteested in participating in. Note Pete doesnt want images sent to him initially, though you can always upload them to the files section here!

Cheers,
~Al


Subject:Lunar eclipse images wanted...
From:Pete Lawrence <pete.lawrence_nospam_@pbl33.co.uk>
Reply-To:pete.lawrence_nospam_@pbl33.co.uk
Date:Wednesday 05 November 2003 14:44:23
Groups:sci.astro.amateur,uk.sci.astronomy

Lunar Parallax Demonstration Project

[Purpose]
To demonstrate lunar parallax (the apparent shift in the Moon's
position when observing it from different positions on the Earth's
surface) using contributed images of the Moon against a fixed
star-field.

[Project Image Contributions]
If you want to contribute to this project, all that is required is an
image of the Moon to be taken, during the totality phase of the next
lunar eclipse on the 8/9th November 2003, that shows the Moon and at
least two stars in the same image field.

Totality is predicted for 01:06 - 01:31 UT on the 9th Nov. In order
to make sure that all photos are taken at the same time, using an
accurately set watch, please try and capture a Moon/star-field image
at 01:10, 01:15, 01:20, 01:25, 01:30.

Ideally, the 01:20 image is the one that is wanted (the others are
safety net images ). If you cannot get a photo of the Moon and
stars in the same exposure, image one exposure for the Moon and
immediately take another, exposed for the stars (i.e. over exposing
the Moon).

The Moon's diameter should be as large as possible in the image frame
with at least two identifiable stars in the field. However, any image
that shows two stars and a distinct lunar disk will be ok.

If you get a result and want it to be used in the project, please let
me know by email (don't send any images yet) to pete dot lawrence at
pbl33 dot co dot uk, putting the word "parallax" in the subject header
of your email. Please don't send me photos unless I come back and ask
for them!

Your email should also indicate the time you took the image and your
location (lat/long if possible).

If anyone's interested, here's a link to a previous international
imaging project that I co-ordinated.

< homepage.ntlworld.com/p.lawrence1/planetanim/animintro.html> ;

Thanks in advance to all contributors.


Pete
Homepage at www.pbl33.co.uk
CCD/digicam astronomy

Still cloudy here in S. Dublin (22:40 Sat 8th Nov)

The following website (in Norway) has a live video feed of the moon updated every couple of minutes:

www.astronomi.no/live/

John.

Thanks a million for that John.
I'm clouded out down here near Urlingford (Tipp/Kilkenny border)
At least now I can say I saw it anyway
Michael

Good to hear the someone else saw it, we had cloud here in Limerick at 7.30 pm but with small gaps heading in a northerly direction.

Con Buckley and I decided to go “cloud gap” chasing by heading in a northerly direction, we saw to moon before totality and saw it again half inside totality, but that was it.

Blanket cloud then came along and spoiled the rest of the view.



BTW, we ended up in Roscommon, if we’d know it was clear where you were, we might have headed in your direction.

Maybe IFAS should designate someone in each club as “local weathermen” where people in IFAS can ring and find out if it’s clear in other areas???

In our desperation, while in Athlone, we rung the local Garda station in Sligo to see if they could see the moon, they were surprisingly helpful and co-operative, and said that they had a look themselves before we rang but could see nothing but cloud (saved us a 3 hour round trip) , we’ll just have to wait until May next year for the next one.

I know we occasionally criticise RTE and others for their questionable sources and simply wrong information, but they arnt as bad as C4. This from uk.sci.astronomy

Anyone see the lunar eclipse animation on the Channel 4 news this evening? I've seen many lunar eclipses, but never one quite like this one will be. A circular shadow, the same size as the lunar disc, will slide over the Moon, blotting it out. At the instant of totality, a lunar corona will show outside the shadow.

And there was me resigned to having to put up with the usual old
copper-coloured thing that lasts far too long for my modern attention
span. Bummer!

Cheers,
~Al[/quote]