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
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Images from the penumbral eclipse of 11 January 2020
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| Moon taken with my Xperia mobile phone at 3:13 am, before the start of the annular eclipse. All images were taken with no digital zoom, f/2. ISO 800, 1/4000 second exposure using infinity to infinity focusing with 20 mm lens and a 4.5" Newtonian scope. | 4:07, 20 minutes after the penumbral eclipse has started, note the faint darkening of the Moon (prior to this I had to move my scope and reset up, painful) |
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| 4:27, the darkening is now clear in both the telescope and to the unaided eye. | 4:48, After an interval with cloud and another shuffle to avoid the moon going behind trees the darkening of the Moon is now clear. |
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| 4:59 after another bout of cloud the darkening is even clearer. After this the clouds came over solidly so I gave up 40 minutes before mid eclipse | Simulation of the shadow at mid-eclipse (not so dark in the simulation but give an idea of the positioning). |
After the sky being clouded out all day and most of the night when I checked the sky in the morning and it was clear as a bell, so I hastily set up my equipment and started imaging. Because of the low altitude of the Moon there was a lot of interference from the trees, which meant I had to move the telescope a lot and re-adjust the camera (hence big gaps the the coverage). Then cloud started coming over, I did get a fair way into the eclipse before the cloud completely wiped it out, but by the time I gave up the darkening of the Moon was obvious both in camera and by eye.
Unfortunately this is the best and darkest of the penumbral eclipses this year for Australia (although the November penumbral eclipse favours the east coast, it is not very dark).
Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, Moon, penumbral, unaided eye
Saturday, September 17, 2016
My Images of the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (Saturday 17 September, 2016)
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| Moon at 3:00 am ACST, 37 minutes after the penumbral eclipse has started, not much is going on in either the telescope or visually. Click to embiggen. | Moon at 3:30 am ACST, a clear darkening is seen in the telescope, less obvious visually. Click to embiggen. |
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| Moon at 4:00 am ACST, darkening now obvious both visually and telescopically. Click to embiggen. | Moon at 4:30 am ACST, 6 minutes after maximal penumbral eclipse. darkening very obvious both visually and telescopically. Stars also clearer (sorry ABC). Click to embiggen. |
Getting up at 2:30 am to view the penumbral eclipse was a bit brutal, as my plan to go to bed really early was thwarted by futile efforts to get SmallestOne to go to bed (The Guardians was on, who can resist super-powered owls) and I wanted to be sure my Beloved Life Partner arrived safe and sound in Hobart for a girls weekend at MOMA, airline connections meant that she didn't get in until around 10:30 pm.
But anyway, I staggered out of bed, checked the skies, which were largely cloud free as predicted (thank you SkippySky, my go to cloud prediction service), and dragged Don the 8" Newtonian out getting my weightlifting exercise.
With no Southern Cross or Pointers visible to polar align my scope (curse you horizon obscuring house), and having knocked the finder-scope out of alignment (curse you clumsy shoulders). I took longer than usual to set up and take my first image, hence missing the earliest stages of the eclipse.
But after that it was a just a matter of keeping warm (copious cups of tea and increasing the number of layers I had on until I waddled slightly), occasionally correcting for the drift of not actually polar aligning the scope (my scope has a two axis drive, but only one axis works, one day I will get that fixed.) stopping the camera from shutting itself down and just enjoying the eclipse with my own eyes.
This was the deepest penumbral eclipse I have ever witnessed. The north pole of the Moon went visibly dark, not as dark as in a partial eclipse, but there was nothing subtle about it, anyone wandering out in the early morn would have notice the Moon was not its usual bright self.
The sky was also darker, again, not as dark as it gets in a partial or total lunar eclipse, but you could see that the background sky was darker than ta normal full Moon and that there were dimmer stars visible at 4:30 than a few hours before (Having Orion and Taurus around, with a wealth of dim stars was a useful comparison).
Technical details, I imaged this with a Canon IXUS point and shoot at ASA 400, with infinity to infinity exposure apposed to a 25 mm Plossl eyepiece on an 8" Newtonian reflector with motor drive. See the set-up here. the exposure started at F 13 1/125 second and then mysteriously swapped to F 4.5 1/500 second around haf-way through. Why not my DSLR? Primarily because the Moon is bigger than the field of view of my DSLR on the scope, and I have to manually stitch two images together. That and I have to reread the manual to work out the settings.
Labels: astrophotography, eclipse, Moon, penumbral
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (Morning, Saturday September 17, 2016)
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| Morning sky on Saturday September 17 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 04:00 ACST. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click to embiggen). Note the subtle darkening of the Moon. | Earth's shadow is formed from two overlapping cone-shaped sections. The outer or penumbral shadow is where the Earth blocks part but not all of the Sun's light from reaching the Moon. Click to embiggen |
On the morning of 17 September there is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, where the Moon glides through the outer segment of the shadow cast by Earth. Unlike earlier this year, the Moon dives deeper into the outer shadow, so although faint there will be a visible visible darkening of the Moons northern regions. An example from the penumbral eclipse in 2012 can be seen here.
Unfortunately, this all occurs in the early morning, so you will need to get up in the early hours to see it. However, to eclipse aficionados the subtle darkening of the Moons bright light to a pearly glow is quiet beautiful.
All of Australia will see this penumbral eclipse from start to maximum. However, in the eastern states the Moon sets before the eclipse finishes (see table below) . More importantly, in the eastern states astronomical twilight begins around maximum, so the faint penumbral shadow will be washed out by the twilight glow about an hour before the Moon sets. Central states have around half an hour more time before the eclipse will be washed out.
See the table below for timings for major cities (all times are am on the morning of the 17th). Twilight is Astronomical twilight, an hour and a half before sunrise, when the sky is still fully dark. See here for a map and contact timings in UT for sites outside Australia. Asia and Africa have the best views. My guide to imaging eclipses may be helpful.
| City | Eclipse start | Mid eclipse | Twilight | End eclipse | Moonset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide (ACST) | 2:23 | 4:24 | 4:48 | 6:26 | 6:23 |
| Brisbane (AEST) | 2:52 | 4:54 | 4:26 | 6:56 | 5:25 |
| Canberra (AEST) | 2:52 | 4:54 | 4:36 | 6:56 | 6:10 |
| Darwin (ACST) | 2:23 | 4:24 | 5:30 | 6:26 | 6:50 |
| Hobart (AEST) | 2:52 | 4:54 | 4:35 | 6:56 | 6:20 |
| Melbourne (AEST) | 2:52 | 4:54 | 4:50 | 6:56 | 6:28 |
| Perth (AWST) | 0:53 | 2:54 | 4:52 | 4:56 | 6:26 |
| Sydney (AEST) | 2:52 | 4:54 | 4:29 | 6:56 | 6:01 |
Labels: eclipse, Moon, penumbral
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Wednesday March 23, 2016
Comparison of brightness of the Moon at 8:00 pm ACDST (left panel) and at eclipse maximum (10:47 ADST) as seen from Adelaide. Note the subtle darkening of the Moon (click to embiggen).
On the evening of 23 March there is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, where the Moon glides through the outer segment of the shadow cast by earth.
In contrast to a total or partial lunar eclipse, where the Moon is either fully or partially immersed in Earth’s shadow, viewers will only see a subtle darkening of the southern part of the Moon’s disk. You can see an actual example of a penumbral eclipse here.
Eastern and central states get to see the whole event, for Western Australia the Moon rises with the eclipse well under way.
For the East Coast Moon the eclipse begins at 7:37 pm AEST (8:37 AEDST), maximum eclipse is at 9:47 pm (10:47 pm AEDST), the eclipse ends at 11:57 pm (00:57 March 24 AEDST).
For the Central states the eclipse begins at 7:07 pm ACST (8:07 ACDST), maximum eclipse is at 9:17 pm (10:17 pm ACDST), the eclipse ends at 11:27 pm (00:27 March 24 ACDST).
For Western Australia Moon Rise is around 6:07 pm (see twilight/sunset calculator below), the eclipse begins at 5:37 pm AWST, so the Moon rises partly eclipsed, astronomical twilight ends 8:04 pm maximum eclipse at 7:47 pm, and the eclipse finishes at 9:57 pm
See here for a map and contact timings in UT for sites outside Australia
Labels: eclipse, Moon, penumbral
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