LUNAR ECLIPSE TONIGHT !!!!

Are you going to look up and check out the eclipse tonight?

I plan on checking it out, it should look pretty interesting. Has anyone ever tried taking pics of anything in the sky at night? I'm curious if the pic would come out, probably not enough light and I doubt a flash would help in that situation.

MSNBC
No enthusiastic sky watcher ever misses a total eclipse of the moon. And the spectacle is often more beautiful and interesting than one would think. During the time that the moon is entering into and later emerging from out of Earth�s shadow, secondary phenomena may be overlooked. To help prepare for Saturday night�s eclipse, here is a chronology, including some of the things you might expect to see.

msnbc.com...


THE STAGES OF THE ECLIPSE

1. Moon enters penumbra (5:15 p.m. ET): Earth�s shadow cone has two parts: a dark, inner umbra, surrounding by a lighter penumbra. The penumbra is the pale outer portion of the Earth�s shadow.

2. Penumbral shadow begins to appear (6:14 p.m. ET): Now the moon has progressed far enough into the penumbra so that it should be evident on the moon�s disk.

3. Moon enters umbra (6:33 p.m. ET): The moon now begins to cross into Earth�s dark central shadow, called the umbra.

4. 75 percent coverage (7:43 p.m. ET): With three-quarters of the moon�s disk now eclipsed, that part of it that is immersed in shadow should begin to very faintly light up, similar to a piece of iron heated to the point where it just begins to glow.

5. Less than five minutes to totality (8:01 p.m. ET): Several minutes before (and after) totality, the contrast between the remaining pale-yellow sliver and the ruddy-brown coloration spread over the rest of the moon�s disk may produce a beautiful phenomenon known to some as the �Japanese Lantern Effect.�

6. Total eclipse begins (8:06 p.m. ET): When the last of the moon enters the umbra, the total eclipse begins. How the moon will appear during totality is not known. Some eclipses are such a dark gray-black that the moon nearly vanishes from view. At other eclipses it can glow a bright orange.

7. Middle of totality (8:19 p.m. ET): The moon is now shining anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times fainter than it was just a couple of hours ago. Since the moon is moving well to the south of the center of Earth�s umbra, the gradation of color and brightness across the moon�s disk should be such that its upper portion should appear darkest, with hues of deep copper or chocolate brown. Meanwhile, its lower portion � that part of the moon closest to the outer edge of the umbra � should appear brightest, with hues of reds, oranges and even perhaps a soft bluish-white.

8. Total eclipse ends (8:31 p.m. ET): The emergence of the moon from the shadow begins. The first small segment of the moon begins to reappear, followed again for the next several minutes by the Japanese Lantern Effect.

9. 75 percent coverage (8:55 p.m. ET ): Any vestiges of coloration within the umbra should be disappearing now.

10. Moon leaves umbra (10:05 p.m. ET): The dark central shadow clears the moon�s right hand (western) limb.

11. Penumbra shadow fades away (10:24 p.m. ET): As the last, faint shading vanishes off the Moon�s right portion, the visual show comes to an end.

12. Moon leaves penumbra (11:22 p.m. ET): The eclipse �officially� ends, as it is completely free of the penumbral shadow.

OK from my days as an amature photographer.
To get a good picture of the moon, you'll need.

1, SLR camera.
2, Telephoto lens (500mm+ is better).
3, Tripod.
4, 200iso speed film.
5, clear skies.

You should get good picture at say a shutter speed of 150 and the lens set to f=4. Just rember to bracket your shots. Over and under exposing some.

(the above info may not be the best solution)

Would be even better if you could hook a camera up to a telescope.

i wonder if its going to be in the new zealand area, ill take a looksie at the webbys, ' go the moon


[Edited on 8-11-2003 by alexnz]

Originally posted by Britman
OK from my days as an amature photographer.
To get a good picture of the moon, you'll need.

1, SLR camera.
2, Telephoto lens (500mm+ is better).
3, Tripod.
4, 200iso speed film.
5, clear skies.

So what you're saying is that my average digital camera doesn't have a chance of taking a decent pic. Oh well, I that's what I figured. Maybe if someone has some better equip they can post some pics.

alexnz, I would think you would see it down there but I'm not sure. Let us know if you see anything.

Hehe! And who needs cameras when you have a photographic memory Seriously though, if one of ya'll could get photos I'd be interested in viewing them!

*Something wicked this way comes* Bwahahahaha!

Thanks for the reminder PA

Didn't we in America just have a total lunar eclipse... what... a month or two ago? I don't know anything about celestrial rotaions and the such, but does that happen (having two total eclipses in such a close time frame)?

Originally posted by soothsayer
Didn't we in America just have a total lunar eclipse... what... a month or two ago? I don't know anything about celestrial rotaions and the such, but does that happen (having two total eclipses in such a close time frame)?

It was actually just in May, not too long ago.

From MSNBC:

The brightness of this ring around Earth depends on global weather conditions and the amount of dust suspended in the air. A clear atmosphere on Earth means a bright lunar eclipse. If a major volcanic eruption has injected particles into the stratosphere during the previous couple of years, the eclipse is very dark.
No such eruption has happened since our last total lunar eclipse in May of this year, so the betting is that this eclipse will be bright.

msnbc.com...

Just took some pics tonight. Me and my kids watched the first half of the eclipse. It's pretty cool.

Thank you for the pics DL...we are completely socked in here raining off and on and sucky!

Thank you for sharing the images!!!

I must say that from 10pm GMT the skies here were glowing red, i was outside a city and had no light pollution either.

No my eyes were not fooling me, the entire sky was red and i had a friend who commented too... it was like that for about 3 hours.

Ahhhhhh, I missed it hours ago.

Yeah, eclipses are pretty cool to watch. They can be really hard to find sometimes. I remember a few months ago when we had the eclipse. I looked all over the sky in my backyard trying to find the moon, but I couldn't. It was still aroud 6:00 so it was pretty bright. After walking a block down the street I could see it. It wsa this really faint and obscure orangeish slit in the sky. Nothing really big, but interesting to note that the moon could turn that color.