The media here said it’s going to be a supermoon as well. We don’t get to see the eclipse here :(
Cheers, Dave > On Sep 23, 2015, at 7:18 am, Daniel J. Matyola <danmaty...@gmail.com> wrote: > > From an email I received this afternoon: > > > Total Lunar Eclipse! > > On the evening of September 27th, skywatchers throughout North America > will be treated to one of nature’s grandest celestial sky shows – a > total eclipse of the Moon. And unlike the one in April which occurred > in the early predawn hours, this one will happen during convenient > evening ones. > > This cosmic spectacular begins with the full Moon entering the Earth’s > dark inner shadow (the “umbra”) at 9:06 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and > continuing to become ever-more fully immersed in it for the next hour. > Totality itself will start at 10:11 p.m. EDT and last more than an > hour until 11:23 EDT, after which the Moon begins to slowly emerge > from the cone of darkness in reverse order. Adding to the beauty of > the overall scene at this eclipse (especially during totality itself, > while the sky is dark), the Moon will be accompanied by some of the > early rising bright winter stars. (Use your Scientifics’ Star and > Planet Locator to identify them) > > There are several interesting things to notice as you watch this event > unfold. Most obvious are the darkness of the eclipsed Moon and the > range of colors displayed, both of which vary from one eclipse to > another. These depend on the clarity of the Earth’s atmosphere at the > time, which refracts or bends sunlight around into the umbral shadow. > There have actually been eclipses so dark that the Moon remained > all-but invisible during totality — and ones so pale that you had to > look carefully to see that there was even an eclipse in progress! > Among the colors that have been seen are shades of reddish-orange, > brown, copper, rose, and even blood-red. Notice, too, that the Earth’s > shadow is curved at all phases of the eclipse, as the Moon passes > through it. This is direct proof that the Earth itself is round — > something recognized by many early skywatchers. And finally, realize > that you’re actually seeing our lovely satellite move eastward in its > orbit — as it first passes into, through, and then out of the shadow > at roughly its own diameter each hour. > > While lunar eclipses can certainly be enjoyed with the unaided eye > alone (as they have been throughout most of history!), they are > best-seen in binoculars. An ideal pair for this would be a 7×50 or > 10×50 glass, the first number indicating its magnification and the > second the aperture in millimeters. Telescopes themselves, with their > relatively narrow fields of view, typically don’t provide enough sky > coverage around the Moon to get the full effect of its globe being > suspended in space. An exception here, however, is Scientifics’ > amazing Astroscan wide-field reflecting telescope. Providing a > 3-degree actual field of view at it low magnification of 16x, it takes > in an astounding six full-Moon-diameters of sky — something many have > described as looking through the porthole of a spaceship! > > —James Mullaney > Former assistant editor at Sky & Telescope magazine and author of 10 > books on stargazing. > > Dan Matyola > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
