what about the lunar eclipse?

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jennifer1611991
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what about the lunar eclipse?

Post by jennifer1611991 »

Hey everyone!! I was just wondering when and what time the total lunar eclipse in March will be happening!! :)
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boothee
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Post by boothee »

Here is the information from Occult 3.0

L U N A R E C L I P S E on 2007 March 3

Event (U.T.)h m s P.A. Long Lat
[1] Moon Enters Penumbra 20 16 25 130 +58 +8
[2] Moon Enters Umbra 21 29 59 137 +40 +7
[3] Total Eclipse Starts 22 43 46 344 +22 +7
[4] Maximum Eclipse 23 20 51 +13 +7
[5] Total Eclipse Ends 23 57 56 73 +4 +7
[6] Moon Leaves Umbra 1 11 41+ 280 -14 +7
[7] Moon Leaves Penumbra 2 25 21+ 287 -32 +6

Magnitude of Umbral Eclipse = 1.237

[DeltaT = 66.2 secs]

Image

Hope this help!

8-)
boothee
1150mm, 254mm, Newtonion Reflector on EQ5 Mount with dual axis DK3 drive, QHY5 Camera, Canon 300D + Kit Lens, Yangon, Myanmar.
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starfinder
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Post by starfinder »

I have compared the above times with the figures stated in the March 2007 issue of Sky & Telescope, and they are similar.

Basically, for Singapore (and Myanmar!) the eclipse occurs during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday March 4th 2007.

The Moon then will be setting at due West in Singapore.

The following states Singapore time for the above figures, together with the Moon's altitude above the horizon in (round brackets) taken from The Sky planetarium software:

[1] Moon Enters Penumbra 4:16:25am (Alt: 43 deg)
[2] Moon Enters Umbra 5:29:59am (Alt: 25 deg)
[3] Total Eclipse Starts 6:43:46am (Alt: 7 deg)

Moon sets at 7:17am. The middle of totality at 7:20am and end of totality at 7:57am are therefore not visible. Sunrise is at 7:13am.

Basically therefore, it will definitely be worthwhile trying to watch the eclipse when the Moon enters the Umbra at 5:29am. That's when a very distinctive and obvious black bite into the Moon can be seen to progress. Then continue to watch for as long as possible till about 6:45am. After that, the Moon would probably be too low to be seen and then Sun would be brightening the sky already.

The Moon altogether spends some 1 hour and 15 mins in "totality" as seen from planet Earth. However, from Singapore, unfortuntately, totality starts just as the Moon is about to set. Therefore, the totality phases of this eclipse will probably not be visible in Singapore.
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jennifer1611991
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Post by jennifer1611991 »

thanks!! I can see it from school!!!!!!!!! Can't wait for it!!
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starfinder
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Post by starfinder »

starfinder wrote:.
.
Basically therefore, it will definitely be worthwhile trying to watch the eclipse when the Moon enters the Umbra at 5:29am. That's when a very distinctive and obvious black bite into the Moon can be seen to progress. Then continue to watch for as long as possible till about 6:45am. After that, the Moon would probably be too low to be seen and then Sun would be brightening the sky already.
.
.

This is a reminder to all Sing-astronomers that there will be a total lunar eclipse just before dawn this Sunday 4 March 2007.

Please see my post above for the details of time and visibility.

Of course, if this 100% cloud cover continues, even a bollide would not be visible! Let hope it clears.

If it does, then sleep will suffer for some, am sure!
madcorp
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Post by madcorp »

Thanks for sharing the infor.
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starfinder
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Post by starfinder »

I managed to haul myself out of bed at the un-lunarly hour of 5:40am this morning to watch the lunar eclipse, after ignoring my very persistant alarm clock's snooze feature for the preceeding half hour.

By the time I got downstairs at about 5:55am, the lunar eclipse was already half-way through (the umbral eclipse started at 5:29am). I was at least happy that the horrendous cloud cover of the past week was kind enough to leave a small gap in the sky for the Moon to be visible, although there was still a lot of foreground haze and mist.

Poor Moon, it was already being progressively chewed up by Mother Earth. Worse still that it is happening on the 15th Day of the Lunar New Year, what is known as Chap-Gor-Mae, right? As the Moon carried a more and more worrisome look, I appreciated what the Byzantines reportedly felt and dreaded as they beheld a sickly hazy Moon being eclipsed away on the eve of their fall in the 15th Century.

Anyway, convinced that the clouds had lost some of their mean-spiritedness of the past week, I went back upstairs to get my camera. Here is an assembled series of 4 shots of the Moon being eclipsed, from about 35% to about perhaps 5% illumination. I would have preferred to at least have gotten one shot at about 70%, but sleep won an earlier battle.

All shots taken with a dSLR with a zoom lens at 300mm, of varying settings, typically about 1.5 seconds exposure at f/7.1 and ISO 400.

At times it was easy to mistake the partly eclipsed Moon for a normal lunar phase, but the shape of the lighted areas was different from the usual crescent shapes.

At about 6:44am, the time of totality, the Moon was not visible, due to the very heavy cloud cover and the fact that the Moon was then only about 7 degrees above the horizon. So I did not see the red copper effect, etc. I think the last time I saw it (totality) was in around 1999 with Remus and others in Singapore at a field in Eunos, at about 10pm.

Anyway, I am happy to see the Sun rise now... much more heartening!
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zong
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Post by zong »

Oh man, you were lucky, because for the first half of the eclipse you missed, we didn't see much anyway!

Clifford also took a few pictures. I hope we can get something from it.

We met up at 5.20am at the carpark area. Echelon (oops, forgot his name!) was also there. When the lunar eclipse "officially" started at 5.29am, the cloud cover was full, haze and low thick clouds and high clouds and all.. However the clouds were kind enough to give us some slack of 5mins at about 5.35-5.40am, where we were able to see a little bit of the moon starting to get covered from the top left corner. Then clouds came in again for another 20mins! (By which time starfinder started, which means he was real lucky because the first half hr there was practically nothing..)

When the moon finally came out again, we could see the moon on and off, with the irritating haze and clouds in between. The moon was totally obscured by clouds and Earth's shadow by 6.35am where the very very very last trace couldn't even be seen through binoculars. Actually, i lost it through my binos around 6.33am, but clifford said he still could see it for another 2 mins more! I definitely should eat more carrots :lol:
Stargazing ... is an excuse to stay up past bedtime that never fails!
deepakrn
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Post by deepakrn »

I managed to catch the first half of the eclipse from around 5:30 am to about 6:30 am (again intermittently) thru the cloud cover. I was viewing from my 3rd storey window in Bukit Timah est. The clouds were still pretty mean spirited, IMHO, and I "gave up" and decided not to sacrifice sleep after the moon was almost half-eaten up. :)
ChaosKnight
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Post by ChaosKnight »

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