Sunday 7 September 14:20
The most beautiful part of a lunar eclipse for me is the first moment when the moon leaves the Earth’s umbral shadow. Sunlight catches the lunar mountain tops first, then ‘shoots’ round the edges. (A sort of inverse of the “diamond ring” during a total solar eclipse when the first sunlight shines through the lunar valleys). This should be at 20:52 For my location. I’ve only seen it a couple of times before; hopefully tonight will make it a third!
I fear the moon will still be hiding behind the houses on the opposite side of the road even if I look through my east-facing attic window. I checked it last night at 19:52 (the moon rises about an hour later each day) and couldn’t see it, so I’ll need to travel somewhere. When the comet (I can’t remember its name) came last winter I found a good western view. Travelling is the new astronomy… (or wandering if you’re a planet! 😉 )
I’ll bring my binoculars, not for a closer view, but because I expect the sky to still be fairly bright, and the light collecting power of the 40 mm lenses will help make the dim, eclipsed moon more easily visible. I’ll also bring my daughters – not because their pupils are larger than mine and have less difficulty in picking things out, but because I’d like to think I’ve brought them up well to appreciate these natural wonders!
Sunday 7 September 17:15
I found a good viewing location on the way home from church, but my wife suggested another which turned out to be a lot better!
Sunday 7 September 20:40
We got to a fantastic viewing location! The Netherlands is known for being flat which is true for most of it – but not the hilly bits such as where we were, where an ice lobe in the penultimate ice age pushed material to two sides forming 2 ‘mountains’ (source wikipedia). We were atop the northern one, giving us a brilliant view over the valley to the south, and stretching in the east and west directions. And crucially, with a low horizon!
There were around 50 other people there including one with a fairly decent looking camera with a huge lens on a tripod. I must admit I felt quite at home being amongst other people with a shared interest!
But sadly we saw no moon – but I had my binoculars so surely I’d find it?
No. I scanned a lot, no knowing exactly where the moon should be, until I heard a shriek of excitement. The lady behind me had spotted it with her naked eyes! 48 other pairs of eyes looked towards where she pointed, but I needed my wife to point it out to me – about an outstretched fist high from the horizon, and above a dent in the tree line.
The lower left of the moon was the lightest, and I guessed it was because that was the area where the cloud was clearing first. Then it dawned on me ( 😉 ) that that was the area of the moon coming out of eclipse. The moon was rising and travelling westwards, but only due to the Earth’s rotation. It’s proper motion was towards the East, i.e. closer towards the horizon. The lower left of the moon.
I’d missed the diamond ring (or whatever it’s called for the moon) due to the clouds by just a few seconds! But it still looked amazing! Heavy contrast between the red moon (sunlight refracting through the Earth’s atmosphere (as it does in the morning or evening) and shining onto the moon) and the regularly sunlit part made the phenomenon like a silvery cornea on a red eyeball!
The phone pics don’t do it justice, but here are a few anyway. I didn’t want to spend too long messing about with the settings; the default is a 3 second exposure when it’s dark which means movement leads to fuzzy photos. I used my daughter’s head as a ‘tripod’…
As the sky became darker and the moon brighter, the photos became increasingly worse. My wife asked me about a bright white spot on the upper left quadrant of the moon which I’ve just looked up to be Copernicus.
I’d read that Saturn was nearby, so I scanned for that too, but no sign of it. I saw an astersim which I recognised and later confirmed to be part of Aquarius. (I also checked the interactive star chart on Heavens Above which confirmed Saturn was to the Moon’s SE).
Nearby in Pisces is the vernal equinox. I know this makes sense, but I can’t put my finger on why…
All in all this was a really cool experience, and doubly so because I shared it with my family! 🙂
