Lunar Eclipse, 20 February, 2008!

[Qazaq2003]

Attention astrogeeks,
  I know this is early, but this is an advance headsup on the upcoming lunar eclipse happening on the night of 20/21 February, 2008. The lunar eclipse starts at 6:35pm CST on the evening of 20 February (00:35 UTC, 21 Feb.), with the penumbral phases. The partial phases begin at 7:43pm CST (1:43 UTC). Totality starts at 9:00pm CST (3:00 UTC), and ends at 9:52pm CST (3:52 UTC). Partial phases after totality continue until 11:09pm CST (5:09 UTC), and the penumbral phases continue until 12:17am on the 21st, CST(6:17 UTC), when the eclipse ends. People living in the Americas, Western Europe, and Western Africa, as well as all islands in the Atlantic Ocean will have ringside seats for this eclipse. Let's hope the weather will allow us to experience this upcoming eclipse.

[Skyjim]

Hey, Q!I was out on the lawn at Griffith Observatory, working at a telescope last night.  Weather broke just enough to allow us to view most of totality - I had more than 300 people look through my refractor in 5 hours!Sorry I've been such a stranger - just really busy between the college, the observatory, and family stuff.Clear Skies!Jim

[Qazaq2003]

Jim, not a problem, I understand. Great to hear from you though. I was able to view the eclipse myself, despite most of Wednesday was rather crapola here in N.O. Fortunately there was some nicely timed breaks in the neverending cloud cover, that did allow me to see most of the eclipse, including all of totality, so at least I was lucky there. Now I am ready for the next lunar eclipse on the night of 20-21 December, 2010, where again, the Americas will be well favored for eclipse viewing.

[LunarOrbit]

Hi guys! I watched the eclipse and tried to take some pictures of it, but I'm a novice photographer so none of my shots turned out. I did manage to get some ok shots of the moon a few days later though.



I'm waiting for a teleconverter lens that I bought on ebay to arrive. Hopefully my next lunar photographs will turn out even better.


LunarOrbit

ps. I also apologize for not visiting more often... work has kept me pretty busy.

[Qazaq2003]

LO,
  Great photo of the moon. Not bad for a novice photographer.  Q

[LunarOrbit]

Thanks. I had to tweak the brightness/contrast a bit. But it is much better than my attempts to photograph the eclipse. I used too high an ISO and they were really grainy.

I've been taking pictures since I was a kid, but I only got my first "real camera" (with full control of the shutter speed and aperture, etc.) for Christmas. My camera is a Canon Powershot S5 IS. It's not an SLR, but it's pretty good.

[Qazaq2003]

Excellent, Canon cameras are really good quality cameras. I have a Canon digital camera myself, the Canon Powershot A400, that I got for Xmas a few years ago. It has been a very dependable camera so far.

[LunarOrbit]

Yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about Canon cameras and I have no complaints with the S5 so far.

I'm looking forward to some warmer weather so I can have some fun with the camera. I didn't even go outside for the pictures of the moon, it was too cold so I just took the picture through my bedroom window.

[Qazaq2003]

Not a bad picture at all, considering you took it through your bedroom window, and we all know that the optical quality of window glass basically sucks.

[LunarOrbit]

Actually, I opened the window, but only long enough to take the picture. I did have to shoot through the screen though. You can almost make out the grid pattern of the screen in some of the full resolution pictures. Still, it was easier than getting all dressed up in warm clothes and going outside.

I was a bit worried that I would damage the camera if I brought it outside when it was that cold... either that one of the plastic parts would crack or that the lens would fog up when I went back inside.

[Qazaq2003]

You definately don't want to mess up your new camera by exposing it to extremely cold temps, or worse, having fumble fingers and dropping it into a snow bank or worse. Anytime we have real cold temps here in N.O., what very few times that happens, my scopes, and my camera stays in the house until the cold weather passes. Enjoy your new camera. I was able to see the eclipse, despite rotten weather here in N.O. last week, for there were some perfectly timed breaks in the cloud cover and rain.

[alokmohan]

When  is   next   lunar   eclipse|?

[Qazaq2003]

The next total lunar eclipse will occur on the night of 20 and 21 December 2010. The Americas will have ringside seats for this upcoming eclipse, however there is a partial lunar eclipse on 26 June 2010, where the entire Pacific Ocean area will have ringside seats for that one.