Lunar eclipse

[tekkieman]

Don't know if anybody is interested in this sort of thing....

Lunar eclipse visible tonight if skies are clear

By Usha Lee McFarling
Los Angeles Times

A total lunar eclipse expected to create views of a blood-red moon will be visible tonight throughout most of North America, weather permitting.

Such an ideal viewing opportunity will not occur again until 2008, astronomers said. The only area in North America that won't be able to see the eclipse in its entirety will be western Alaska.

In the Pacific time zone, the total eclipse phase will occur from 7:23 p.m.
until 8:45 p.m. The faint beginnings of the show, which will start at 6:14 p.m., will not be visible from the West Coast because the moon will not have risen yet. The eclipse will be over by 9:54 p.m.

"The moon should have a deep red color during the total [eclipse] phase,"
said Fred Espenak, an astronomer at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Lunar eclipses take place only during a full moon and occur when the moon passes through some part of Earth's shadow. In a total eclipse, the entire moon passes through Earth's shadow.

[CoasterCreator]

thats cool I just hope I dont get eye damage when I take a peek or worse yet tranform to an wild hairy animal ( sexual hairy animal )

[888888]

So it will start at 9:23 here in New York?

[yoda313]

Hello,

We get it here in Michigan between 9:30 and 11pm I think.....

Kevin

[offline]

No way! I've sworn of astronomical events.

(thinking Day of the Triffids)

..besides Haily's Comet was a complete joke.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I just went outside(the World Series sucks),the moon is very eerie...perfect for Halloween.

[ZAPPER]

Howhow Hoooowwww

[888888]

Thanks for informing me about the eclipse tekkieman, I wouldn't have known without you and it looked great. No clouds then, although it has since gotten cloudy.

[ZAPPER]

I got the AOL skywatch alert thing going for me. There have been alot of rare stellar events that just happened to happen in our era. But what amazes me is that people figured out these cycles long long ago without computers or even fully understandind what or why it was happening.

[yoda313]

Hello,

I crashed before it started. No more eclipses until 2007

Kevin

[JohnnyCNote]

We can see the Space Shuttle and other launches from here when the weather's good....

[Capmaster]

I went out last night with my digicam and tried to capture it in an AVI when it was about 3/4 red and very dim. I got a whole lot of nothing on playback though :P Still, that would've made a good moon for Halloween

[tgpo]

My brother did some time lapse video on it. I'll see if the video is any good and post it.

[ViRaL1]

Does anyone make some kind of attachment that lets you (consumer grade) connect your camcorder to a telescope? If not, why not?

[yoda313]

Does anyone make some kind of attachment that lets you (consumer grade) connect your camcorder to a telescope? If not, why not?

Hello,

I was at an astronomy club once and a guy said he got great shots just putting the camera against the eyepiece! But having some stabilizer for it would be ideal.

Kevin

[Capmaster]

Does anyone make some kind of attachment that lets you (consumer grade) connect your camcorder to a telescope? If not, why not?

Hello,

I was at an astronomy club once and a guy said he got great shots just putting the camera against the eyepiece! But having some stabilizer for it would be ideal.

Kevin

I got these pics of the sun and the moon just holding my little Canon digicam to the eyepiece:

[tekkieman]

Sweet shots Cap! Makes me want to buy a telescope!

[flaninacupboard]

Did you use a filter on the sun? would have thought that would melt your camera otherwise!! moon shot looks good though. sadly i have nowhere for a telescope

[Capmaster]

Sweet shots Cap! Makes me want to buy a telescope!

Thanks tekkie

Did you use a filter on the sun? would have thought that would melt your camera otherwise!! moon shot looks good though. sadly i have nowhere for a telescope

I used a full-aperture solar filter. They make smaller, cheaper ones for just the eyepiece, but the pros say you should never expose the internal mirror to the light intensity you get from viewing the sun directly.

Here's my telescope:

https://www.videohelp.com/~capmaster/astronomy.html

[offline]

Cap, any photos of Saturn?

[CoasterCreator]

nice pix...,,Cappy

[Capmaster]

Cap, any photos of Saturn?

I tried, but they turned out ghey :P It's a small intense target and trying to get it to come out is difficult without the right camera setup. The sun and moon were pretty fast shutter speeds. Saturn was fairly long, as was Jupiter and its moons. I can see them, and their moons just fine ..I just can't get it captured.

They have plans on the web to take a cheap PC webcam and, using PVC fittings, make an eyepiece adapter to mount the CCD. Add in an app that takes 100 or 200 exposures and overlays them, you have a decent astrophotography setup that'll let you photograph distant galaxies ..in color.

I've tried getting color shots of Orion Nebula, which is a bright pink in color. But it doesn't work. With low light, the B&W is the only thing you'll resolve without some hellaciously long exposure times (hours). I could do it with the motor drive, which compensates for the earth's rotation, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. The video hobby took over my spare time and I only occasionally get out in the back yard with the telescope.

nice pix...,,Cappy

Gracias

[offline]

Yeah.. Saturn is quite bright and ..well.. weird looking
in real life. I thought you might have a motor drive.

If you ever go on holidays in Oz, check out
the Melbourne telescope. It's a hundred years
old but resolves planets a treat. It is also line
of sight with the Travel Lodge motel hi-rise <cough cough>

You could say I've seen many moons

[tekkieman]

Ok, where's the inevitable joke about taking pictures of Uranus?????

[Capmaster]

Yeah.. Saturn is quite bright and ..well.. weird looking
in real life. I thought you might have a motor drive.

If you ever go on holidays in Oz, check out
the Melbourne telescope. It's a hundred years
old but resolves planets a treat. It is also line
of sight with the Travel Lodge motel hi-rise <cough cough>

You could say I've seen many moons

I do have a motor drive, but I have to hold my camera to the eyepiece and it's impossible to eliminate all camera movement. That's why the home-brew eyepiece adapter for the webcam is so attractive. I just need to lug the laptop out in the back yard for that

I'll bet you've gotten more than a few shots of "moons" and "nibble-la"

[Dr. DOS]

Here's my telescope:

https://www.videohelp.com/~capmaster/astronomy.html

Holy Shit that's a biggin'

Ok, show us the pics you've taken whilst 'accidentally' viewing the neighbors

[Capmaster]

Here's my telescope:

https://www.videohelp.com/~capmaster/astronomy.html

Holy Shit that's a biggin'

Ok, show us the pics you've taken whilst 'accidentally' viewing the neighbors

Here's the link:

www.capsneighborpron.org

I wish. The problem is the farging telescope inverts everything. The last time I tried looking at the neighborhood hottie, my wife walked in to find me hanging by my ankles from the ceiling, peering into the viewfinder and rubbing myself.

For her it was a flashback to the time that I mounted Dolly with the wrong air pressure and ended up with my butt-cheeks lodged between the ceiling fan motor and the smoke detector. I was hanging on like a scalded cat because if I dropped, the spinning blades were lined up perfectly with my pride and joy (not Dolly)

[CoasterCreator]

OHHH shit ...that is the funniest thing ....shit ...so what if my co-workers think I am crazy ,,,this is classic

[Doramius]

Sweet shots Cap! Makes me want to buy a telescope!

Thanks tekkie

Did you use a filter on the sun? would have thought that would melt your camera otherwise!! moon shot looks good though. sadly i have nowhere for a telescope

I used a full-aperture solar filter. They make smaller, cheaper ones for just the eyepiece, but the pros say you should never expose the internal mirror to the light intensity you get from viewing the sun directly.

Here's my telescope:

https://www.videohelp.com/~capmaster/astronomy.html

And you didn't take any pics of last nights eclipse? Damn Cap. I'm in the middle of the desert and we got a huge rainstorm that blocked it. Man, I'm pissed now. SOmeone who could have taken it didn't. And here where we could have viewed it on a normal day get pissed on by mother nature. And we thought her legs were closed over this region. :P

Really though. Anybody get pics?

[tekkieman]

Doramius - I thought you were in Vegas!?!? I talked to my aunt there last night, and she said she saw it before the rain hit. She's out by Nellis.