Yesterdays Eclipse - Where was it on the Danjon Scale?

I had the telescope out front in my housing estate and had quite a few random passers-by have a look (some good old fssioned sidewalk astronomy) and a lot of people commented on the blue tint during the partial phase. Then during totality I really thought the moon was orange rather than red. Also, even in binoculars you could still easily see mare and other features during the very depth of totality and with the telescope craters and even rays were visible. All this leads me to conclude that this was not a very dark eclipse at all.

All this leads me to put this eclipse as a 4. Since there has been no major volcanic activity and since Sadam's oil wells aren't burning anymore that makes sense.

The description I have for point 4 is

Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse. (Umbral shadow has a bluish, very bright rim)

Sounds band on to me!

What do others think?

Bart --

It's sort of on a different axis than the Danjon scale, but I recorded an SQM of 20.8 during totality. That's a bit toward the upper range for my observatory, which normally get 20.5 - 21.0 on a moonless night. (With a full, non-eclipsed moon, I'll usually record somewhere in the 17's.)

So I can't say how dark it was compared to other eclipses, but I can say that the moon was adding *very little* to the overall sky brightness.

-- Jeff.

Bart - from Celbridge I'd say your description was spot on for what we saw here. Orange/copper red with the Northern limb of the moon brighter throughout.

Cheers
Dave

I bagan my sketch (pastels on Black paper) at 21:40UT finished at 22:45UT .Started a bit late and ended up racing the galloping shadow, with a pencil and pastels.

At 22:45 I was very impressed with the blue leading edge of the charging shadow, and the gorgeous raspberry tone so pronounced toward the southern pole, the eastern limb also displayed some yellow/orange hues.

Keeping it for COSMOS

Actually during between 00:10UT and 00:35UT while making a second sketch. I observed and sketched the retreating shadow as having a green tint to its edge,is it possible that yellow and blue photons mixed to give this hue, just like colours mix together to make new colours ???????????



Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society
www.irishastrosoc.org

I don't know where on the Danjon scale this eclipse rang in at, but I was having a ball observing galaxies and planetaries with my 8" during the eclipse!

I did take a few shots of the moon through the eyepiece which turned out quite well - nothing as spectacular as Anthony's, but not bad for hand-held!

Phil.

Bart I agree with the estimation of 4 possibly 3 at a stretch. But I'd nail my colours to the post that says 4.