Topic: Dec. 20th/ 21st, 2010 lunar eclipse...

[nomad]

Another cool sky event is coming up next week.  A total lunar eclipse (at least for those of us in North America) will occur late Monday night (Dec. 20th)/ early Tuesday morning (Dec. 21st) depending on which coast you're on.  Here are the details:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/17dec_solsticeeclipse/

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2010-Fig04.pdf

The eclipse begins on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21st, at 1:33 am EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST). At that time, Earth's shadow will appear as a dark-red bite at the edge of the lunar disk. It takes about an hour for the "bite" to expand and swallow the entire Moon. Totality commences at 02:41 am EST (11:41 pm PST) and lasts for 72 minutes.

If you're planning to dash out for only one quick look -  it is December, after all -  choose this moment: 03:17 am EST (17 minutes past midnight PST). That's when the Moon will be in deepest shadow, displaying the most fantastic shades of coppery red.



Set your clocks!

[BeSeeingYou]

And on Solstice too.  These are pretty cool events to do a time lapse photo shoot.  I have done some years ago with 35mm slide film.  May have to try digital this time if I can stick out through the cold.

[nomad]

Tonight's the night!

[78 k550]

I'll be watching.

Paul

[wannabridin]

I have the camera ready and mounted to the tripod!  Should have a clear view all night!!

[BeSeeingYou]

Snowed out.  I'll stay in bed.

[the technological J]

crap cloudy here... post pics if you get any!

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Full eclipse on a cloudless Colorado sky.

[nomad]

Full eclipse on a cloudless Colorado sky.

We have clouds here in NC, but every so often a sucker hole will come along and you can see it.  I've got the little digital camera out there on a tripod, but it's like most modern point and shoots... can't focus well in low light.  I've tried ~8 second and 15 second exposures with little luck.  The focus is killing me!

[nomad]

Alrighty... this is about the best I could do with the equipment I had.  Not long after this, the sky totally clouded over.

Hopefully someone did better than this:

[Markcb750]

I got up at 3am, clouds, went back to bed.

[SteveD CB500F]

Totality was about 0740 here, but even on the shortest day it is light by that time 

Also the moonset is so low in the NW that you either have to live on a hill or in a block of flats to see it. Too many large oak trees around me...

[wannabridin]

i have better than this!  here's my album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zeropointtap/LunarEclipse122110#

and here's some good shots i have.  now granted these are just from an advanced point and shoot (Canon SX20IS).  aperture is set at f/8, ISO is 800-1600, exposure times vary, some up to 15 seconds.  optical zoom of 20x, digital zoom up to 80x, most at 63x.  









here's some others from me just playing around:
Pleiades cluster



out the front porch, Orion, and Betelgeuse are visible here



Orion in is entirely, Betelgeuse and Sirius are all visible here



hope you enjoy these!  and please forgive the brightness of the long exposures, damn DFW, TX has so much light pollution!!

[nomad]

and here's some good shots i have.  now granted these are just from an advanced point and shoot (Canon SX20IS).  aperture is set at f/8, ISO is 800-1600, exposure times vary, some up to 15 seconds.  optical zoom of 20x, digital zoom up to 80x, most at 63x.

You've got some really nice shots there!  It looks like you had clearer skies than what we had for totality.

[nomad]

here's some others from me just playing around:
Pleiades cluster

 

[wannabridin]

hha, nice!

and ya, we had somewhat clear skies.  still too much light pollution!  i'm jealous of those people in AZ that have light pollution laws!  i'm slowly working on some "plans" to get cities around here to institute some "caps" for all the street lights everywhere!  maybe i can make a difference...

and thanks for the comps on the pics, they turned out ok, but they're still quite noisy when blown up.  Freaking Canon did away with their "Super Fine" compression setting!  that and having a sensor opening/size that's QUITE smaller than a nice DSLR hurts things... 

[78 k550]

Full eclipse on a cloudless Colorado sky.

It was nice.

Very nice pics.

Paul

[rhos1355]

Repent ye sinners..............the end of the world is nigh