So boys and girls of all ages , here is how you plan to see the forthcoming " SuperMoon" and lunar eclipse in the wee small hours of Monday morning, September 28th 2015. Total phase ie the best bit lasts from 03.11 to 04.23.
What's going on ? The sun in space will be shining on our lovely Earth as it always does. And like all objects our Earth has a shadow created by this action which is thrown out into space for hundreds of thousands of miles. During a total lunar eclipse , the Sun , the Earth and the Moon are in a line , so the Earth's shadow is cast temporarily on the full moons face.
Our moon will move through the Earths cone shaped shadow. As it does so it will appear to change colour. The Earths position blocks most of the suns light from falling directly on the planet facing ( near side ) of the moon. Light that does manage to find its way into the shadow gives a rusty look to the moon as it scoots along on its happy way.
The moon is NOT changing colour , it is being illumniated by refracted sunlight entering the atmosphere. This light which escapes being blocked by the Earth has predominantly longer wavelenghts which produce the red colour of the spectrum. Therefore we see our moon in this muted red light , and tainted by dust in our atmosphere.
Shadows have dark centres and a less dark outer edges so when the moon is moving into the lighter part of the shadow ( the penumbra) it will begin to get a bit rusty looking . When the moon moves fully into the dark middle ( the umbra ) of the shadow it will look fully dark red/ rusty . Then it will move along into the outer penumbra and look less rusty and then finally begin to look just like our usual moon as it clears the shadow of the Earth completely.
Mostly as the moon orbits the Earth it moves under or over the shadow due to variations in its elliptical orbit around our planet. On this occasion it will move directly into the shadow and will look very unusual for a while.
Use TIme and Date website to find your Nearest City and your sorted. ( its handy)
Check the weather forecast for your area . Time and Date have that built in !
Check the times of the lunar eclipse for your area
Dublin for us is grand and is in fact fine for all Ireland
TIme and Date Link http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/ireland/dublin
All the key times are here and a speeded up video so you can see what to expect.
Now if you like you can watch the September full moon rising at approx 19:36 for Ireland.
The September full moon is also known as the Harvest Moon , farmers , the ploughing and all that.
The Full moon on Sunday September 27th is a bit closer to the Earth on this particular orbit so to the eye it appears to be larger but it is NOT physically larger than usual, it's just closer ( a bit like the cow in Father Ted) :-)
Watch the moon rise and enjoy it , some people are calling it a Supermoon , it's a trend . It's closer to the Earth and its Full what's not to like ? So as this only happens occasionally I guess it's OK for it to be "Super" as long as people understand that the moon is consistently the same size .
So then on Sunday night go to bed early and set the alarm for whatever lunar eclipse phase you fancy viewing for yourself, some of it or all of it. Even in some cloudy conditions the moon can pop through and you might be lucky to see it.
Be sure to check out where in the sky the moon will be when the Lunar Eclipse is happening.
You can use the free software Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/ to do this or you can look out all the windows in your house till you see it. Or you can wrap up warm and go outside
and look SW !
You do not need a telescope to see the moon being Super , rusty , or in an lunar eclipse.
However if you have a telescope or binoculars you may enjoy how fast the leading edge of the shadow moves over the lunar surface changing the appearance as it moves.
Here is a scale to help you judge the darkness of the shadow
The Danjon Scale - for Lunar Eclipse rating.
L=0: Very dark eclipse. Moon almost invisible, especially at mid-totality.
L=1: Dark eclipse, gray or brownish in coloration. Details distinguishable only with difficulty.
L=2: Deep red or rust-colored eclipse. Very dark central shadow, while outer edge of umbra is relatively bright.
L=3: Brick-red eclipse. Umbral shadow usually has a bright or yellow rim.
L=4: Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse. Umbral shadow is bluish and has a very bright rim.
Here is a guide to taking a photograph of the Lunar Eclipse by NASA's Bill Ingalls
with tips for iPhone , SLR and a link to the NASA live stream .
http://spacecoastdaily.com/2015/09/nasa-photography-tips-for-sundays-supermoon-from-professional-nasa-photographer/
What's going on ? The sun in space will be shining on our lovely Earth as it always does. And like all objects our Earth has a shadow created by this action which is thrown out into space for hundreds of thousands of miles. During a total lunar eclipse , the Sun , the Earth and the Moon are in a line , so the Earth's shadow is cast temporarily on the full moons face.
Our moon will move through the Earths cone shaped shadow. As it does so it will appear to change colour. The Earths position blocks most of the suns light from falling directly on the planet facing ( near side ) of the moon. Light that does manage to find its way into the shadow gives a rusty look to the moon as it scoots along on its happy way.
The moon is NOT changing colour , it is being illumniated by refracted sunlight entering the atmosphere. This light which escapes being blocked by the Earth has predominantly longer wavelenghts which produce the red colour of the spectrum. Therefore we see our moon in this muted red light , and tainted by dust in our atmosphere.
Shadows have dark centres and a less dark outer edges so when the moon is moving into the lighter part of the shadow ( the penumbra) it will begin to get a bit rusty looking . When the moon moves fully into the dark middle ( the umbra ) of the shadow it will look fully dark red/ rusty . Then it will move along into the outer penumbra and look less rusty and then finally begin to look just like our usual moon as it clears the shadow of the Earth completely.
Mostly as the moon orbits the Earth it moves under or over the shadow due to variations in its elliptical orbit around our planet. On this occasion it will move directly into the shadow and will look very unusual for a while.
Use TIme and Date website to find your Nearest City and your sorted. ( its handy)
Check the weather forecast for your area . Time and Date have that built in !
Check the times of the lunar eclipse for your area
Dublin for us is grand and is in fact fine for all Ireland
TIme and Date Link http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/ireland/dublin
All the key times are here and a speeded up video so you can see what to expect.
Now if you like you can watch the September full moon rising at approx 19:36 for Ireland.
The September full moon is also known as the Harvest Moon , farmers , the ploughing and all that.
The Full moon on Sunday September 27th is a bit closer to the Earth on this particular orbit so to the eye it appears to be larger but it is NOT physically larger than usual, it's just closer ( a bit like the cow in Father Ted) :-)
Watch the moon rise and enjoy it , some people are calling it a Supermoon , it's a trend . It's closer to the Earth and its Full what's not to like ? So as this only happens occasionally I guess it's OK for it to be "Super" as long as people understand that the moon is consistently the same size .
So then on Sunday night go to bed early and set the alarm for whatever lunar eclipse phase you fancy viewing for yourself, some of it or all of it. Even in some cloudy conditions the moon can pop through and you might be lucky to see it.
Be sure to check out where in the sky the moon will be when the Lunar Eclipse is happening.
You can use the free software Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/ to do this or you can look out all the windows in your house till you see it. Or you can wrap up warm and go outside
and look SW !
You do not need a telescope to see the moon being Super , rusty , or in an lunar eclipse.
However if you have a telescope or binoculars you may enjoy how fast the leading edge of the shadow moves over the lunar surface changing the appearance as it moves.
Here is a scale to help you judge the darkness of the shadow
The Danjon Scale - for Lunar Eclipse rating.
L=0: Very dark eclipse. Moon almost invisible, especially at mid-totality.
L=1: Dark eclipse, gray or brownish in coloration. Details distinguishable only with difficulty.
L=2: Deep red or rust-colored eclipse. Very dark central shadow, while outer edge of umbra is relatively bright.
L=3: Brick-red eclipse. Umbral shadow usually has a bright or yellow rim.
L=4: Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse. Umbral shadow is bluish and has a very bright rim.
Here is a guide to taking a photograph of the Lunar Eclipse by NASA's Bill Ingalls
with tips for iPhone , SLR and a link to the NASA live stream .
http://spacecoastdaily.com/2015/09/nasa-photography-tips-for-sundays-supermoon-from-professional-nasa-photographer/
Doing a drawing of a total lunar eclipse is a bit of a task
Here is one I drew back in 2007
March 2007 I was lucky enough to see and sketch a lunar eclipse from my garden in Bray.
3/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.23 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 1
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
Danjon Scale L = 4
March 3rd 2007
I was delayed setting up for XYand Z reasons, in an ideal world I would have had the entire lunar disc sketched in with detail before the earthly shadow entered this drama.
The delay, actioned my sketching in defence of the advancing darkness
When I began to sketch at 21:40UT the ominous dark shadow was descending on the Tycho area. I decided quickly to sketch from the North ( bottom of the page) up (south is up for me)
I realised that my usual etching method with a wooden toothpick was going to be too slow for this sketch and decided on pencil over pastel for speed.
Firstly I detailed the Mares as much as I could give prominent bright craters like Proclus, Plinius and Kepler some white attention as I suspected they might be still visible under the shadowy blanket, despite whatever colour developed. I put a lot of detail into Plato as it was outstanding in shape and contrast.
21:50UT the shadow was heading to gobble up my Copernicus before I could sketch it.
22:24UT Proclus was in grave danger of being swallowed whole.
By 22:34UT a fabulous blue leading wave developed and swept up the curve of the moon to merge with the increasing raspberry tones developing toward the south.
At 22:34UT when the colour began to appear, I had to run inside for red pastels.
Earlier that day I was thinking how would I do this colour overlay? I laid down some grey and tried out brushing it over with some red tones but this was not so good.
Fingers were the only thing for it and I worked quickly in red tones until I saw to both my delight and excitement a blue wave appearing across the entire width of the lunar disc.
Fingers red, big wipe, fingers blue.
In my haste and excitement of blueing the moon I wiped out Plato as my blue fingers joined the shadow and began moving up with it, oh god !! Stop or there will be no moon left. I observed that the blue edges wrapped the moon in a curve to both sides, like a gas flame burning up my surface detail.
Meanwhile a yellow orange glow developed at the South East limb, big wipe, yellow fingers. Ended up with just Goldschmidt, Barrow, and I think Philolaus left at the Northern end of the moon, just about untouched at that moment. A criss cross ray ejecta feature was visible also.
The star 59 Leonis was also sketched in off the SE limb
4/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.32 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 2 / Hazy
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
therfore a slight distortion
I waited to see what the emerging moon would look like and I started a second sketch at 00:10UT ending at 00:35UT due to a hazy atmosphere. Not much detail was available but I did observe that the retreating shadow had a distinctive green grey edge and reckoned that was worth noting.
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.32 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 2 / Hazy
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
therfore a slight distortion
I waited to see what the emerging moon would look like and I started a second sketch at 00:10UT ending at 00:35UT due to a hazy atmosphere. Not much detail was available but I did observe that the retreating shadow had a distinctive green grey edge and reckoned that was worth noting.
