Saturday, November 28, 2020
Twilight "Blue Moon" Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Monday, November 30, 2020
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| Evening sky on Monday November 03 looking east as seen from Sydney at 20:43 AEDST, at mid-eclipse. (The inset shows the Moon in binoculars at this time click to embiggen). At this time the Moon is nearly two hand-spans above the horizon, shortly before Nautical Twilight (and hour after sunset). The subtle darkening of the Moon may be hard to spot. | Evening sky on Monday November 03 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 20:12 ACDST, at mid-eclipse. (click to embiggen). The Moon is just rising, but the subtle darkening of the Moon may be visible an hour after sunset (Nautical Twilight) when the Moon is two hand-spans above the horizon (similar to the Sydney image). |
The November 30 penumbral eclipse is a "Blue Moon" eclipse, occuring on the second Full Moon of the month everywhere except WA (they got their blue moon last month thanks to time zones).
Unfortunately, the penumbral eclipse occurs in the early evening, mostly in twilight. While this is a good time for the kids to watch, the moon is only partly embedded in Earths' outer shadow and the darkening will be difficult to spot. Eastern states have the best view and WA misses out.
You don't need special filters or fancy equipment to watch the lunar eclipse, you just need your eyes and somewhere comfortable to sit and watch. Watching the faint outer shadow of earth creep across the Moons face is quite challenging, as the darkening is subtle and the clise is mostly in twilight, but those on the east coast may find it rewarding (see my images here for January's better penumbral eclipse and the September 2016 penumbral eclipse) . The Moon is very obvious as it rises in the east.
In a penumbral eclipse,
the Moon only enters the outer part of Earth's shadow. This will
results in a subtle darkening of the Moons northern half.
Depending on how good your eyesight is, it could be reasonably visible,
or only visible via photography.
A guide I wrote for the October 2014 lunar eclipse about taking photos of the eclipse is here. And my guide for the 2019 perigee Moon may be helpful for mobile phone users. And there is a downloadable PDF guide to mobile phone astronomy at SpaceMath@NASA.
For all states, the eclipse starts with the Moon below the horizon.
For the eastern states mid eclipse occurs at 20:43 AEDST with the Moon nearly two hand-spans above the horizon, and after civil twilight, so although faint it should be visible. The eclipse ends at 22:56 pm AEDST.
In the central states, mid-eclipse occurs with the Moon just rising, deep in the twilight shortly after sunset and will be difficult to see, however by Nautical twilight, an hour after sunset, the darkening is still extensive and should be seen. the eclipse end occurs 22:26 pm ACDST, after the end of astronomical twilight.
In WA, the eclipse start and mid eclipse all occur with the Moon below the horizon, and the rest of the eclipse deep in the twilight.
The table below shows the time of the eclipse from Eastern, Central and
Western Australia. For Eastern and Central Australia subtract an hour
for non-daylight saving states. The early parts of the eclipse will be
effectively invisible to the unaided eye. When around 2/3 of the Moons
disk is immersed in the penumbra, then you will see an effect (around
half an hour either side of maximum eclipse, so central state observers may see something).
| Penumbral Eclipse Begins | Maximum Eclipse | Penumbral Eclipse Ends |
| below horizon | 20:43 AEDST | 22:56 pm AEDST |
| below horizon | 20:12 ACDST | 22:26 pm ACDST |
| below horizon | below horizon | 19:56 pm AWST |
See here for a map and contact timings in UT for sites outside Australia
Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, mobile Phone, Moon, penumbral, unaided eye
Thursday, March 12, 2020
My images of the March 10 Perigee Moon.
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| Full Moon March 10 22:00 AEDST, 6 hours after Perigee. Click to embiggen. | Full Moon September 14, 2019, Apogee - 15h |
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| Stellarium prediction: Full Moon March 10 22:00 AEDST, 6 hours after Perigee. Click to embiggen. | Stellarium prediction: Full Moon September 14, 2019, Apogee - 15h |
Tuesday March10 was a perigee full Moon. Strictly Full Moon was at 4:18 ACDST and perigee was at 17:00 ACDST. The Full Moon is a perigee Moon when the Full Moon is closest to the Earth.
I captured the images above with my Xperia Mobile phone (1/4000th second exposure ASA 800) and my 4" Newtonian with 25 mm Plossl lens. The comparison image is the September 14 apogee Moon taken under the same conditions. The row below are the stellarium simulations. The simulations are rotated a bit compared to the telescope images due to the camera orientation, but the images are otherwise spot on.
Overlay of March perigee moon (right) and September apogee Moon (left).
You can see previous perigee/apogee moon pairs here, here and here
Labels: apogee, astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, perigee
Monday, February 18, 2019
Reminder, Perigee Full Moon of February 19/20 2018
A full Moon at perigee has been called a "Super Moon", this is not an astronomical term (the astronomical term is perigee syzygy, but that doesn't trip off the tongue so nicely), but an astrological one first coined in 1979 (see here).
Still, it is a good excuse to get people out and looking at the Moon.
While perigee (closest approach) of the Moon is actually at 19:30 ACDST, and the Full Moon is on 2:20 ACDST on the 20th, tcatching the Moon shorlty before midnight will give you a good sized Moon so close to Full you can't tell the difference.
Even so it will be hard to distinguish from most normal full Moons.
However, this will be a good opportunity to image the full moon through telescopes or binoculars. If then take a photo of the Moon on September 13 you will see a decent difference (you need to use exactly the same zoom enlargement. The pairing of the February 19 Perigee Moon and the September 13 apogee Moon will be the best contrast we will get until 2032.
Full details and links to hints on imaging the perigee Moon are here for mobile phone and here for standard cameras.
Images of the January 21 Perigee Moon are here, and of the the perigee apogee pair from 2014.
Labels: astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, perigee, telescope
Sunday, February 03, 2019
Moon Images from the 100 Hours of Astronomy
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| Moon image at 10:12 pm ACDST 10 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/250 second exposure ASA 800. Click to embiggen | Moon image at 10:21 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 3200.Click to embiggen | Moon image at 10:21 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 1600. Click to embiggen |
On the 100 days of astronomy, I had a chance to play around with my mobile phone and its telescope adapter. I too a variety of images with different exposure conditions and different eyepieces. I had a mostly good run with the Moon. the images I took on the 10th were badly affected by turbulence, and it set shortly after, so I had no chance to do 25 mm eyepiece images. On the 12th I started after the Moon had set, so no images then. But I still now have a better idea of how to balance high iso (allowing for short exposures but less crispness in the images) and fast shutter speed.
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| Moon image at 10:15 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 25mm eyepiece with a 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 800. Click to embiggen | Moon image at 8:54 pm ACDST 13 Jan using a 25mm eyepiece with a 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/2000 second exposure ASA 800.Click to embiggen |
Atmospheric turbulence is a beggar, especially on unguided mounts, even with really shot exposure times. So I have to time my imaging when the moon is much higher (not always practical with family). I will also have to try my hand using the guided 8" Newtonian. But that takes a lot more set-up so I can't be as spontaneous.
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| Moon on 11-01-19 overlay of 2ximages using 10 mm eyepiece. Click to embiggen (compare to the 25mm shot above) | Moon on 13-01-19 . overlay of 2ximages using 10 mm eyepiece.Click to embiggen. (compare to the 25mm shot above) |
I was able to do some mosaics with the 10mm images, but field rotation makes overly a pain in the bottom. I will have to be more caerful in timing to get better overlap of the images.
But overall, not bad for my first serious imaging attempt with the mobile phone. Images of Nebula and clusters to come.
Labels: astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, public outreach
Friday, January 25, 2019
Images from the Perigee ("super") Moon of 21 January 2019
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| Perigee (super) Moon of 21 January 2019. 25 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria mobile phone ASA 800 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Scaled full frame image. Click to embiggen. | Perigee (super) Moon of 21 January 2019. 25 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria
mobile phone 2 x Zoom, ASA 400 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Scaled full frame image. Click to embiggen. |
Here are my images from the perigee ("super") Moon of 21 January. The images above are taken with my mile phone camera held to a 25mm eyepiece of my 4$" Newtonian telescope using a mobile phone adaptor, the left image is unadjusted and un-cropped, the right image is 2xZoom at the same scale (unadjusted and un-cropped). If you click on them for the full size image, you can see that Zooming didn't really help, bigger image but less clarity. The weird colour of the zoomed moon is due to camera colour response.
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| Perigee (super) Moon of 21 January 2019. 25 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria mobile phone ASA 800 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Image cropped to Moon then scaled to 800x600. Click to embiggen. | Perigee (super) Moon of 21 January 2019. 25 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria
mobile phone 2 x Zoom, ASA 400 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Image cropped to Moon then scaled to 800x600. Click to embiggen. |
Same images cropped to the Moon at a 1:33 ratio then saved as 800x600. Again the Zoomed image has no obvious benefits in clarity.
The difference is not as big as the perigee apogee pair from 2014. This is because the January perigee moon was about 14 hours form perigee and the apogee Moon was also 14 hours from apogee (when the Moons size will be biggest and smallest respectively). In 2014 the perigee Moon was dead on Perigee and the apogee Moon was 2 hours off apogee, so the size difference was maximized. This year Feb 19 will be 6 hours from Perigee and Sep 13 will be 15 hours from apogee, giving a somewhat better contrast but still not as good as 2014. The year (Feb/Sep) is the best pairing until 2032.
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| 10 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria mobile phone ASA 400 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Image cropped to 1:32 then scaled to 800x600 | 10 mm eyepiece with Sony Xepria mobile phone ASA 400 1/4000 sec exposure. 4" Newtonian. Image cropped to 1:32 then scaled to 800x600 |
Images through my 10 mm eye piece, I can't fit the full Moon into the active area of the camera, but I can get some nice details suitable for mosaics. I'll post some later on. I'll alos have a go with the 8" with motor drive when I feel like lugging the behemoth out.
Labels: astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, perigee, telescope
Monday, January 21, 2019
Photographing the Perigee ("Super") Moon of January 21, 2019
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| Comparison of this months Perigee Full Moon with the apogee full Moon on September 13 | A selection of different adapters, from left to right camera adapter, mobile phone adapter and a 25 mm lens |
There has been a lot of excitement on the internet of tonight's "Super Moon" because from the US and Europe it occurs at the same time as a total Lunar Eclipse (Getting it called a "Super Blood Wolf Moon"). We won't see the eclipse in Australia, we had our "Super Blue Moon" eclipse last year, but we will get to see the Perigee Syzygy Moon in all its glory.
So what will you see? While the Moon's size is really obvious in a telescope, visually it is very hard to see the difference between this Full Moon and the one before even if you have fantastic eyesight. Indeed telling the difference between this perigee Moon and the following apogee Moon on 13 September will be very difficult.
In both cases, the Moon is around half the width of your finger, and a mere 4' (that's minutes of arc, about 4 human hairs in width) different in size. This is around the limit of what humans can distinguish. If you have great eyesight and a great memory you will be able to distinguish between the January and August full Moons, but otherwise, no.
As well, unless you have a REALLY good memory, you will be comparing it with the full Moon the month beforehand, when it was almost identical in diameter, that is not much different at all.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't look though, Daniel Fischer has been able to see the difference, you can read his account and viewing tips here
http://earthsky.org/space/can-you-discern-supermoons-large-size-with-the-eye-an-observer-says-yes
However, it will be a good photo opportunity, if you have a decent zoom on your DSLR camera or access to a small telescope. If you do have access to a telescope and you take an image on January 21, then take a photo of the Moon on September 13 you will see a decent difference (you need to use exactly the same zoom enlargement, see Inconstant Moon for general instructions). In the past, I have used a simple point and shoot camera with an adapter for moon imaging as well as a DSLR. But what if you don't have these kinds of cameras? The solution is the mobile phone.
Modern mobile phones have amazing imaging ability. You can get decent images just by holding your mobile phone to the lens of the telescope. But this can be an exercise in frustration as you try and align the mobile phone lens with the telescope lens aperture.
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| The Mead mobile phone adapter | Mead mobile phone adapter with 25 mm lens in place |
However, if you already have a tripod adapter for the mobile phone, you can use it with a telescope camera adapter (top right image, far left adapter). You can also get a dedicated mobile phone adapter, there are several out there of varying prices (see here, here, here and here). I have a Meade adapter. It is mildly annoying but is good for my phone which has a very off centre lens.
You simply attach the adapter to the lens of your choice. I suggest a wide field lens like a 25 mm. It allows you to fit the whole moon in and is very forgiving if your scope and finder scope are slightly out of alignment.
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| Assembled with the mobile phone in place, alignment needs to be adjusted | Assembled on telescope |
One the phone is assembled on the adapter you will need to adjust the alignment so the entire aperture is visible in the phone, then you can pop the assembly on the telescope. If I am doing this at night, I use my red-light torch to set up the alignment before assembly by shining it into the lens (trying to do in on the scope is an exercise in frustration).
Hint: make sure you do this over a soft surface if the phone falls off it won't smash then.
For a full Moon, you shouldn't need to go from manual to auto. But it is more satisfying if you do. Most mobiles now have a full suite of manual settings (the location of the manual controls are very variable between mobile phones, check yours out in advance). Change autofocus to manual and use the landscape/infinity setting. Choose an iso around 400 and a shutter speed as fast as possible the give you a decent image (I use around 1/1000 to 1/2000 sec).
Unless you have a guided scope the Moons image will drift so a rapid shutter speed will reduce the blurring. Even with a guided scope fats shutter speeds will give sharper images due to reduced atmospheric blurring.
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| "Super Blue Moon" Total Lunar eclipse of 1 February 1:12 am. Sony Xepria 1/500th sec exposure ASA 400. This is a perigee Moon | "Mini Moon" Total Lunar Eclipse of 28 July, 4:25 am. Sony Xepria 1/2000th sec exposure ASA 400. This is an apogee Moon. Note the clear difference in size between the two (same image scale and zoom factor) |
The images above were taken with my Sony Xperia mobile phone.
Don't worry if you can't nip down to your local astronomy shop today to get an adaptor, try the holding the phone up to the lens arrangement as a practice for the February 19 perigee Moon, and purchase an adapter after you have done a bit of research on prices.
With an adapter, you can broaden you astrophotography horizons so much (eclipses and some of the brighter clusters are now accessible to you)
Labels: astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, perigee, where to look
Friday, August 03, 2018
My images of the July 28 Total Lunar Eclipse
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| Total Lunar Eclipse of 28 July, 4:06 am. Sony Xperia 1/2000th sec exposure ASA 400. | 28 July, 4:25 am. Sony Xperia 1/2000th sec exposure ASA 400. |
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| 28 July, 4:51 am. Sony Xperia 1/8th sec exposure ASA 800. 10 minutes to totality. | 28 July, 5:50 am. Sony Xperia 1/8th sec exposure ASA 12000. Pretty much maximum eclipse |
My alarm went off a 3:30 am as planned. The sky was achingly clear, I had everything planned. Observing clothes out, lenses already set out, I had practised setting up the mobile phone on the mobile phone telescope adapter I had bought just for this.
As I got the scope out and set it up I could see the penumbral shadow creeping over the moon. The the motor drive wouldn't track! By the time I gave up and settled for imaging untracked shots a substantial divot had been taken out of the Moon (as seen in the top left hand shot, which is the first image I got).
The Mobile phone adaptor worked like a dream. I took images at 5 minute intervals (more or less, depending on where I was making a cuppa or not) as I watched earth's shadow creep over. As the moon as more and more consumed by shadow, I started playing around with different exposure times and ASA values to try and bring out both the illuminated and eclipsed Moon. Taking images with the phone allowed me to send them to the internet in real time as well.
Then the last sliver of illuminated Moon vanished and we had totality...AANNND I had to move my carefully aligned scope. as the Moon went behind the roof.
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| "Super Blue Moon" Total Lunar eclipse of 1 February 1:12 am. Sony Xepria 1/500th sec exposure ASA 400. This is a perigee Moon | "Mini Moon" Total Lunar Eclipse of 28 July, 4:25 am. Sony Xepria 1/2000th sec exposure ASA 400. This is an apogee Moon. Note the clear difference in size between the two (same image scale and zoom factor) |
Scope set up again I paused to take in the awesome burnished disk that was the Moon. The sky was dark again and the night hushed. The MiddleOne's friend who was staying over came out (he had accidentally left on his work alarm, both my kids stayed in bed even though I asked them to come out).
Then my firnd Steve and his son turned up. I showed them the eclipsed Moon through the scope via the Mobile (makes it much easier to show people things). Ruddy Mars was a brilliant counterpoint to the copper Moon. Even though the Moon was eclipsed, its show did not stop. As it headed into the central part of Earth's shadow it got darker still becoming a dark grey colour. Then as it moved out of the deepest Shadow the sky began to pale as twilight advanced.. AND I had to move my scope AGAIN as rooves interfered (should have set up in my third spot first).
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| The Moon and Mars at maximum totality 5:51 am 3x Zoom (Canon IXUS 15 sec, ASA 400) | The Moon and Mars aas twilight creeps in 6:16 am 3x Zoom(Canon IXUS 15 sec, ASA 400) |
The others went off to their beds again and I took my camera and decamped to the beach for the the International Space Staiton Pass and the finale. Got down the end of the road and set up, the sky paled and the Moon faded as it headed towards the sea. Right on time the ISS appeared and began to glide above the eclipsed Moon, pale against the twilight sky but still visible, and Mars.
Unfortunately I had the exposure time too long for the conditions, so the Moon Mars and ISS are a bit washed out, so I had to do a quick exposure change during the ISS shots, so my ISS sequence isn't the best, but boy did it look great when I was watching it.
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| The International space station zooms over the Moon and Mars 6:42:38(Canon IXUS 5 sec, ASA 400) | The International space station zooms over the Moon and Mars 6:42:46 (Canon IXUS 5 sec, ASA 400) |
And the the Earth's shadow finally slipped off the Moon, the pathc of Moon was still plae against the brightening sky but still brighter tha the eclipsed portion. Eveni=ually the waxin crescent slipped behind the marine layer, and my eclipse was over.
Then I went home, packed up the scopes, had a quick look at others photos and went to bed (well, the sofa so I didn't disturb my Beloved Life Partner) for a quick snooze, the grand adventure finished.
Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, Mars, mobile Phone, Moon
Thursday, October 09, 2014
My Lunar Eclipse of 8 October, 2014
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The eclipse evening started out okay, with nice blue skies with the occasional cirrus. But as the time of the eclipse drew near, the horizon became cloaked with clouds. I kept popping out nervously while cleaning up from dinner to the amusement of the neighbours.
The Moon eventually pulled away from the cloud (although it was hazy for a while), but by then the Moon was mostly eclipsed. I did lose some time trying to set up the 8" Newtonian for viewing (the images you see are all my 4" Newtonian with the Canon IXUS), I had a frustrating time until I realised I had not taken the back lens cap off the spotter scope on the 8" (rolls eyes).
Totality saw the Moon a deep red colour, then the clouds rolled in again. I missed the iridium flare over the Moon because of them.
After a while the clouds disappeared completely though, and I had a marvellous view of the copper-coloured Moon and the darkened sky. EldestOne and SmallestOne came out to look at the eclipsed Moon, but neither wanted to look through the scope for some reason. EldestOne popped out of his own accord on and off during the evening, but I had to cajole SmallestOne away from the TV.
The colour doesn't really come out in the deepest eclipse images, the eclipse was relatively dark, and to get better intensity I had to use longer exposures, which had the Moon drifting too much.
Then the Moons edge got brighter, and the shadow slipped off the Moon. I was able to get a full sequence of the disappearance (and clean the oven at the same time - MiddleOne had a Cake Baking Adventure and failed to clean up after himself).
The Moon and sky were bright again, and I packed all the gear away.
All in all a very satisfying eclipse, got to share it with the kids, and see other peoples images near live on my mobile while imaging myself.
Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, mobile Phone, Moon
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