[sac-forum] Re: Lunar Eclipse from Fountain Hills

Gene,
   
  Great to hear you were able to view the event.  After viewing some post's and 
chatting with others, it seemed no one was able to get together as they had to 
work on Tue.  The views from my backyard in Avondale were great.  Although at 
the max eclipse the humidity shot up to 70% (have a lake against my back yard) 
and temp went down to 91*.  It become very muggy & miserable.  But me and the 
dog just sat in the lounger with some of my scopes (sm. tabletop 76mm 
Catioptric .965mm, with dark moon filter (on/off during the nite) had mostly a 
great view, a 4.5" Orion reflector was okay view & my Meade 6" reflector (very 
bright prior too, without a polarizing filter - which I need to finally break 
down and purchase one very soon), my 10-30x50 Zoom binoculars & my only digital 
3.1mp Camera pointed upward enjoying the view.  The only big problem was the 
camera is not a 0lux.  Therefore, does not do well in darkness, even with the 
f/ at full open.  So once the eclipse was at about
 80% or so I could no longer take any photo's.  However, did take a bunch up to 
& after the eclipse while still in the prenumbra stage, but not while in the 
Earths Umbra. :(  There was a nice orangish haze at the max eclipse & actually 
I think the binoculars gave the best overall view.  Even saw a few shooting 
stars throughout the night and some amazing objects / nebulas in the dark sky & 
some at the edges of the moon at full ecilpse (still trying to determine what 
was what):(..  Even the view of the moon & it's craters was nice to view during 
the eclipse, everything looked so different.  So, overall enjoyed the evening / 
morning by me-self & doggie.....
   
  As with you I was unable to get the NASA webcast to work.  Guess the link was 
messed up, kept getting the 404 not found error, or just hanged..  Was very 
frustrating, so gave up.
   
  Well hope others were able to stay up to enjoy the event.  I felt it was well 
worth staying up to enjoy the rare opportunity.  Anyone else have a good 
viewing evening?
   
  Enjoy every night's enjoyable sky views....
   
  Sincerely,
  Steve Palmer

gene lucas <geneluca@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  Stayed up and watched the lunar eclipse from my front yard here in 
Fountain Hills.
Sky was clear all night, calm, temp about 90 F.
Nice colors seen with my Celestron Sky Master 25x100 binoculars, tripod 
mounted., Moon globe looked 3-D when it was fully eclipsed. Made some 
crude sketches. I would probably have set up some cameras, maybe video, 
but I was trapped on jury duty yesterday, and have to go again today.

I also downloaded pix off the internet from the Mt. Wilson Solar 
Observatory Tower Cam every 5 min or so. Caught most of the eclipse. 
Will try cropping and making a short AVI out of the JPEGs.

I wasted a lot of time trying to get the so-called "live web cast" from 
NASA to load and run. No Go with any of the browsers or connections I 
have available. First the page would not load at all, then the pictures 
never updated. "Goddard, we have a problem!!" Also, a disappointing 
so-called live web cast from the "Coca-Cola Space Center", which looked 
like they left the lens cap on... Pictures loaded, but were completely 
black!

Gene Lucas
(17250)





       
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