Hamilton Centre, RASC Forum

The Centre => Announcements => Topic started by: Gavin.Hill on November 26, 2018, 10:52:22 PM

Title: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Gavin.Hill on November 26, 2018, 10:52:22 PM
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/canada/hamilton
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Ed.Mizzi on November 27, 2018, 10:49:08 AM
Gavin, Thanks for the heads-up. Already had it in my calendar. Let's start praying for clear skies.

Ed
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Muhammad.Ahmad on January 17, 2019, 05:27:35 PM
The Observatory gates will open at 7:30 PM on Sunday night for those wanting to view or photograph the eclipse.
Title: ISS close pass and the Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 18, 2019, 06:14:45 AM
FROM TIME AND DATE DOT COM
Local Type: Total Lunar Eclipse, in Oakville
Begins: Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 9:36 pm
Maximum: Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 12:12 am 1.20 Magnitude
Ends: Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 2:48 am
Duration: 5 hours, 12 minutes

=====================

International Space Station will have a close pass just before 8 pm.  Please see Stellarium screen cap.

=======================

Weather forecast, as of Friday 6 am is "Mostly Sunny" for Sunday.


Fingers crossed
Jeff
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Roger Hill on January 18, 2019, 12:00:29 PM
I'm really looking forward to this, but I'm an eclipse junkie.

You won't be able to see the ISS as it passes close to the Moon, because it will be in the Earths shadow at the time, though.  According to Heavens-Above, the ISS will rise in the southwest at 17:43.33 at magnitude 0.6, will be -0.6 when it reaches 10 degrees above the horizon at 7:45:41 and then goes into the Earth's shadow 8 seconds later at 7:45:49.

There could be some lunar occultations, though.

Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 18, 2019, 01:07:14 PM
Hi back ... OK   ... just got to the bottom of this one ... maybe.... :(

It is a lunar transit from my location, as predicted here:     https://transit-finder.com/results

Others can go to that website, enter their latitude and longtitude and see what their view will be.

For my location, the attached graphic, from that website, shows an enticing prediction for a LUNAR image.....

Also, my Stellarium started crashing every time I used it, so I uninstalled and reinstalled. There is a screen cap of the Moon around this time from the newest installation of Stellarium -- and it seems to show the ISS pretty well on top of the Moon.

If anyone near here is going to try to image it, I expect it would have to be a multi-frames per second setup, such as a planetary camera, webcam, DSLR on video   etc   etc.  And even then, start taking video before the predicted transit and don't stop taking it until after it is supposed to be over.   Then, check all the individual frames ......   
.... but then, that is a "normal" way how this sort of thing is done.

Cheers
jeff

PS:  Who knows ?  LOL
Title: ISS map for tonight, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 20, 2019, 01:12:24 PM
Here is the ISS path map from https://transit-finder.com

cheers
j
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Roger Hill on January 20, 2019, 05:14:11 PM
The Clear Sky Chart is looking good for this evening. 

The Moon will be nice and high in the sky...well above the trees which will help to cut down on the wind!

It will be very cold tonight, so dress as warmly as you can as it's going to be -20C at mid-eclipse.  Add in a 20 kph breeze, and that will produce a wind-chill of -30C.

Who'll be at the Observatory with me?
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Gavin.Hill on January 20, 2019, 08:01:00 PM
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the observatory this evening. Sorry Roger, hope some other members take advantage of your generosity & make it up there.
 Clear skies
Gavin
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 20, 2019, 08:11:57 PM
Just nailed the International Space Station passing across the Moon.
It is a DSLR video, through a 600mm refractor.
Will process and edit the video to the relevant brief portion.
Here is a pic of the rig that brought home the results.
Will keep it set up to do the lunar eclipse shortly.


Jeff
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Roger Hill on January 20, 2019, 10:25:54 PM
Looking forward to seeing, Jeff...well done!


Abigail and I were at the observatory, but I couldn't get the roof open all the way.  Probably some snow and ice on the rails.


Got it closed again, and since no-one had shown up by about 9pm, we went our separate ways.


At the moment, I have my mount set to Solar rate, and I'm pretty sure my camera is pointed at the earths shadow. 


With some luck, I'll have a movie of the moon passing through the Earths shadow.
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 21, 2019, 08:20:32 AM
Cool, Roger.
Hope things went well.
Had ice problems here, too, at the home with windows.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a link to a brief YouTube video of the moment the ISS crossed the full moon ... a couple of hours before the start of a total lunar eclipse.
The space station passes just after halfway through the video, when you hear the crunching of footsteps on the -17C snow.
If you can't see it, click the SPROCKET/GEAR icon on your YouTube video ... then    QUALITY  ......  then    720.   
That should do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSF88XZLQI

thanks for looking
jeff

Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 21, 2019, 08:41:12 AM
Here is a Low-Res image from the lunar eclipse.

When I get some time, I will post a better image ..... gotta go ...

I like how you can see those stars beside the Moon .... that is sooooo unusual.

DSLR exposures at totality were crazy long ..... 10- to 30-seconds.  Unbelievable......  it was so dark and this spectacularly coloured Moon up in that clear sky .... fantastic experience.

Before the eclipse started, I was test imaging the moon -- and a good exposure was 1/500s @ ISO 100.  During totality, I was going up to 10 seconds at ISO 1600.  Given that the ISO scale is linear, then the exposures during totality were -- relatively speaking -- 8,000 times more aggressive.     Remarkable....

Imaged from beautiful Bronte.

best
jeff

Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Roger Hill on January 21, 2019, 11:28:08 AM
A video I made of the entire event can be seen at


https://youtu.be/H3HtDX2kiKs (https://youtu.be/H3HtDX2kiKs)






Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Roger Hill on January 21, 2019, 11:32:55 AM
And Jeff...I'd submit your image to the monthly Astrophoto contest, if I were you...and make it at least 1920x1080 . 
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Ed.Mizzi on January 21, 2019, 03:51:00 PM
Jeff, Great eclipse image but the ISS video was amazing!!!

Roger, Great video of the entire event.

Ed
Title: Likely lunar impact during eclipse
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 22, 2019, 02:23:00 PM
Starting to look like there was an impact on the Lunar surface, just before totality during Sunday-Monday's eclipse.

There are now several reports of this ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNvfBCu-jjI

https://twitter.com/willgater/status/1087478475919900672

Cheers
Jeff


PS: Hopefully the lunar dinosaurs were safe in their bunkers.
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Ed.Mizzi on January 22, 2019, 03:38:22 PM
Quite amazing...the Moon is obviously trying to draw attention to itself and probably feeling left out, now that we are focusing so much attention on Mars, etc.
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 22, 2019, 06:21:15 PM
Here is an update on the eclipse impact event...


A METEOROID SLAMS INTO THE MOON:

On Jan. 21st, a meteoroid slammed into the Moon. We know this because many amateur astronomers witnessed the explosion. The fireball was visible against the shadowy backdrop of a total lunar eclipse.  Visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com for images, video, and the full story.

cheers
jeff
Title: Processing image of the TLE
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 23, 2019, 11:50:21 AM
Finally got a chance to spend some time processing data from the recent Total Lunar Eclipse.
This is a stacking of 10 images, bracketed,* taken in quick succession during totality. Location, our back patio in Bronte.
These exposures are all ISO 800 and range from 1s to 8s in length
Stacked and aligned in Autostakkert, then a touch of PixInsight to attack ‘noise.’
With the images collected here, during totality – where the Moon was amazingly dim – it was very difficult getting detail/fine focus. The stacking helped bring some out.
Thanks for lookin’.

Tech stuff: Canon T5i on the back of a SkyWatcher ED 600mm f7.5, atop a CGEM mount that was “roughly” aligned.

And let’s not forget this part … Ambient temp: -17.1C !!!

Jeff

 Bracketed: A range of exposures.
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Scott.Barrie on January 23, 2019, 12:34:23 PM
Beautiful image, Jeff!

Scott
Title: Re: Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 21 @ 00:12
Post by: Jeff.Booth on January 23, 2019, 01:12:37 PM
Thanks Scott .... one the cool things with this experience was -- suddenly -- seeing stars right beside the Moon.
It is normally way to bright for those stars to be visible to us.
Cheers
jeff