Lunar Eclipse Monday September 28th

We had a great night in Rathbeggan Lakes, with Meath Astronomy Club.

Lots of scopes set up and plenty of chat, as well as the BBQ, superb idea.

We set up the 12" Flextube dob, and took shots through it with a Canon 1000D.

Many thanks to Kevin at Meath Astronomy Club for the invitation, and to Rathbeggan Lakes for the great facilities

Here's some results.









Stephen.

Fermidox wrote:

flt158 wrote: Well before the starting time of 1st contact at 2.08 am, we could all see that there was some form of a shadow on the Moon at 1.55 am.

Spot on Aubrey, by the time I had set up it was 2.04 am and I was a bit disappointed to see the eclipse already well under way; the pic below taken at 2.05 shows the darkening. I had not known until Monday morning that the penumbra would be visible before the stated onset of the partial phase; I can't clearly recall the same effect in previous eclipses -

Finbarr.

Thank you for your opinion, Finbarr.

I most certainly have noticed this effect in other past Total Lunar Eclipses. All 3 sources of my information stated that the partial phase of the eclipse should have started at 2.07 am (Irish Time); and yet there was considerable darking on the northwestern limb even earlier than 1.55 am. Very mysterious.
Does anyone else wish to comment on this?

Thank you, Finbarr, for your most excellent image.

Aubrey.

flt158 wrote: and yet there was considerable darking on the northwestern limb even earlier than 1.55 am. Very mysterious.
Does anyone else wish to comment on this?

On the right is a stack of 12 shots taken from 1.50am to 1.51am (1/250 ISO100), the darkening is very apparent when compared to same settings of the left stack taken from 1.20 to 1.21am (click for higher resolution)

Spellbinding images, Yohan!

Definitely the image on the left is at the penumbral stage. The one on the right appears to show the beginning of the partial phase. I do very much trust your times also.

Perhaps a lunar eclipse expert can explain what was going on during the early hours of Monday morning.

Thank you all.

Aubrey.

Visible transmission spectra of lunar eclipse

Observation of the lunar eclipse spectra of 28 Sept 2015, offers a similarity configuration to an exoplanet transit, showing a transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere.
The observation used the Kingsland 0.4m with a homemade fibre fed spectrograph. Analysis by RSpec software.

The presence of the Earth's ionosphere is revealed in the transmission spectrum through the detection of relatively weak and narrow absoprtion lines corresponding to singly ionised Calcium,Ca II. The characteristics of the various atmospheric details shows the detection of transmission spectrum, O2, O3, O2 O2, and H2O. The individual O2 lines are resolved and O2 isotopes are clearly detected.
Water vapour absorption shows an atmosphere that is relatively dry is found with a weak spectrum of H2O.

Conclusion: This observation has detected the composition required for life.

Image of Crater Kepler during lunar eclipse:

Heat measurements of crater Kepler prior to (left), and during (right) the total lunar eclipse of Sept 28, 2015, acquired by the 0.9-m Kingsland telescope and IR camera. The relatively cold (black) appearance is initially due to the higher albedo. The bright rim during eclipse are warm rocks within and around the crater.

Eamonn

Facinating Eamon, you prompted me to read this article www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/seeing-e...-signs-life-visible/

Any signs of Nitrogen Dioxide polution?

John