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Three images taken with Digital IXUS through an Meade
ETX 90 Telescope (26mm eyepiece).
A blow by blow account of the evening's activities follows the photos (i.e. why
no pre-totality pix)
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Return to home page now or read the account... ...then see more pictures
The weather forecast for Saturday/Sunday night for our area, which is located
just north of Warrington between Liverpool and Manchester, was for cloud, with
maybe some breaks, but further south and east of Crewe looked clear on the
weather map, so we opted to drive south, setting off at 10.30 pm. Reasons:
a) to
try and find clear skies or at least clear patches, which looked more likely
than if we stayed at home;
b) to try and find darker skies, as we get orange
skyglow at home when observing from the back garden; and
c) to be friendly
towards our neighbours, as the motor noise from slewing the telescope and
talking to each other carries at night and could be disturbing to them,
especially since the eclipse wasn't due to end until ~3 am.
The cloud was thick as we set off and showed no sign of breaking or clearing, as we stopped near Congleton just before 11.30 pm for the start of the eclipse. After hanging around for 10-15 minutes, we decided to drive a bit further east and north and found a picnic spot to park up at. Sitting in the car looking at thick grey cloud we were beginning to despair and were getting ready to chalk up another failure due to the British weather! Then about 12.55 am, I saw the briefest glimpse of a red Moon, in partial eclipse for perhaps 2 seconds and then it was covered up again.
Jumping out of the car with binoculars round our necks, we waited for it to reappear … and it did 5 mins later for about 1 second! This was frustrating! The cloud seemed as thick as ever, so we thought that might be our only glance at the eclipse. But about 1.10 am, I could see a bright star in the south - hopes were raised. Then, magically, the cloud had suddenly gone, the red eclipsed moon was exposed and lots of stars could be seen, plus Saturn in the middle of Gemini! It was strange - the cloud just seemed to suddenly disappear, we didn't see any clouds drift/blow over, the blanket was there and then it wasn't! So a quick scurry to get the video camera and the telescope out. The first piece of video was taken at 1.19 am, so we missed the first partial phases and the start of totality, but saw about half of the total phase, and all the remaining partial phases.
During totality, through binoculars, I thought the Moon was quite a light orangey colour, with a brighter south rim. I would say it was 4 on the Danjon scale, in whole numbers, at least nearer 4 than 3. Through the telescope (Meade ETX 90), it looked darker/greyer, less orange in colour, but still very distinguishable against the sky background (unlike in January 2001 when the eclipsed part of the Moon could hardly be seen as it was so dark).
The brightening was quite noticeable as the umbra moved off and Andrew took some photos through the ETX 90, just holding the Canon digital IXUS up to the eyepiece. We took some video every few minutes and about 20 digital photos, plus about 10 slides. The eclipsed part of the Moon stayed quite orangey throughout, and the Earth's shadow had a clear circular edge to it as it gradually moved across the Moon's face. We saw Jupiter rise in the east, but concentrated out viewing on the Moon. As the Moon brightened the stars became washed out and the landscape became lit up and we could see our shadows. About 15 minutes before the end of the eclipse, clouds started forming on the eastern horizon, and gradually moved up and round to the south. Just after the last umbral shadow cleared the Moon, clouds blew over it and we only had a few glimpses of it after that. All around the cloud was thick again, so no chance to look at Jupiter and Saturn now. We packed up our equipment and headed for home.
Once back, we had to see what the photos and video had turned out like, and were reasonably pleased with some of the digital ones, so sent a couple to spaceweather.com. The video was a bit disappointing, with a lot of noise. This was the first time we had tried the (recently purchased) digital video camera on the Moon, and kicked ourselves for not also using the (old) analogue video camera as well - as that has given good results in the past.
So a partial success this time. Out of the main events this year, ie. transit of Mercury, May's lunar eclipse, annual solar eclipse, end of October's aurorae and November's lunar eclipse, we have scored 80%, nil, nil, nil and 50%. Not really a very good average. So we are not staying in the UK for next year's transit of Venus, but plan to go where clear skies are more guaranteed!
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A sequence of images
captured from a Canon MV600i DV camcorder. |
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