The Chicago Astronomers Observe the Preumbral Lunar Eclipse
It's always an anxious day prior to an eclipse, making sure the day's activities are wrapped up, getting equipment ready and hoping for clear skies.
Everything fell into place, and I was going to see an eclipse this day! I arrived at the lakefront behind the Adler Planetarium at around 5:15 pm, and considering the fierce winds blowing, I used the Doane Observatory as a wind break. It did help a bit, but the gusts were pretty bad at times. The darkening sky was pretty and clouds were painted deep colors. I sat down on my folding chair and just enjoyed the quiet moment by myself and preparation to the intense observation to come. Great being an astronomer, eh?
Earlier, I sent out a mass cell phone text messages to my local members about the event, and received confirmations of participation and it's always better in sharing a session with friends.
And so we began our vigil. I was first to spot the faint reddish orb peeking over the horizon and we focused our equipment to it. Squashed and deformed, the Moon clearly showed already evidence of eclipse activity...excellentIt rose quickly from its hiding place and put space very fast between it and the horizon. I attempted to take pics as best I could, but the winds were fighting me and making it difficult. The view of the crimson Moon was great, playing among the distant clouds and shimmering in the telescope and binoculars, it was quite awe inspiring.
The Moon was exhibiting bright light pillars shooting out from the top and the bottom. At first, I thought the winds gunked up my eyes and I was seeing things. I pointed the phenomenon to the others, and they too witnessed the pillars. I "eclipsed" the Moon with my thumb and the pillars were even more evident! This was quite cool!. With my simple digital camera, I was not able to capture the pillars, but as the clouds from time to time totally covered the face of the Moon, the pillars stood out dramatically from behind the cloudcover.
But now, the cloud cover was getting thicker and the sucker holes were less frequent. And so, we called it a night...satisfied on a good preumbral lunar eclipse under our belts.
Please visit the Chicago Astronomer for a full account of the session with images here:
astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi
And the 30 most recent posts here: astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi
Respectfully,
Chicago Astronomer Joe
Administrator
astronomer.proboards23.com
It's always an anxious day prior to an eclipse, making sure the day's activities are wrapped up, getting equipment ready and hoping for clear skies.
Everything fell into place, and I was going to see an eclipse this day! I arrived at the lakefront behind the Adler Planetarium at around 5:15 pm, and considering the fierce winds blowing, I used the Doane Observatory as a wind break. It did help a bit, but the gusts were pretty bad at times. The darkening sky was pretty and clouds were painted deep colors. I sat down on my folding chair and just enjoyed the quiet moment by myself and preparation to the intense observation to come. Great being an astronomer, eh?
Earlier, I sent out a mass cell phone text messages to my local members about the event, and received confirmations of participation and it's always better in sharing a session with friends.
And so we began our vigil. I was first to spot the faint reddish orb peeking over the horizon and we focused our equipment to it. Squashed and deformed, the Moon clearly showed already evidence of eclipse activity...excellentIt rose quickly from its hiding place and put space very fast between it and the horizon. I attempted to take pics as best I could, but the winds were fighting me and making it difficult. The view of the crimson Moon was great, playing among the distant clouds and shimmering in the telescope and binoculars, it was quite awe inspiring.
The Moon was exhibiting bright light pillars shooting out from the top and the bottom. At first, I thought the winds gunked up my eyes and I was seeing things. I pointed the phenomenon to the others, and they too witnessed the pillars. I "eclipsed" the Moon with my thumb and the pillars were even more evident! This was quite cool!. With my simple digital camera, I was not able to capture the pillars, but as the clouds from time to time totally covered the face of the Moon, the pillars stood out dramatically from behind the cloudcover.
But now, the cloud cover was getting thicker and the sucker holes were less frequent. And so, we called it a night...satisfied on a good preumbral lunar eclipse under our belts.
Please visit the Chicago Astronomer for a full account of the session with images here:
astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi
And the 30 most recent posts here: astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi
Respectfully,
Chicago Astronomer Joe
Administrator
astronomer.proboards23.com
