Lunar Eclipse Obs (260610)

Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
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fizzy123
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Post by fizzy123 »

There is an observation session on the rooftop of the marine parade community center on the 26th, from 6 to 9pm. Since it is at the rooftop, the view should be good
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fizzy123
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Post by fizzy123 »

Hi folks, Guangwei and I will be ther at the usual ecp carpark c4/d1, open field by the canal, to obs this eclipse. We will be there some time around 7pm, do join us if you are interested.
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fizzy123
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Post by fizzy123 »

PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE 260610 OBSERVATION REPORT

Location: ECP Carpark C4/D1 open field by the canal
Singastronians: Guangwei & Yuanhuan
Equipment: 80mm WO APO, 7X50 bino, Sony DSC-W80 Digicam on tripod

We arrived at the usual east coast park observation site by the canal around 1911h after some brisk dinner at Macs. The field was occupied by campers and electronic kite fliers, but the skies have been exceptionaly clear, abide for some thin clouds just above the horizon. This seem to extremely miraculous considering it have been raining intensively for the pass few days and that some parts of Singapore had been flooded! We setup our equipments immediately but was interrupted by some loud arguements a few meters away, as an elderly man was being confronted by a youngster for accidentally breaking his kite wires. Wow, the whole event is super comical as they spent nearly 45mins quarrelling over a cheapo wires and even got the police to resolve it. Can't the guy just cut the old man some slack?

Anyway, the moon seemed quite red just above the horizon and it also bigger, must be the result of the moon horizon illsuion. Managed to take a few pictures on tripod at 3X optical zoom. As this was my first attempt at astrophotography, I was worried that the low magnification and lack of prolong exposure capabilities for this low end digicam, may not be able to capture the eclipse (e.g. showing moon as a crescent). But surprising, under program mode, with ISO100, F2.5, most of the shots came out quite decent. Also tried out some shots via afocal projection, but the camera just seem not able to catch hold of the floating image of the ep. In the end, I just placed the camera at the ep using my hands and fired off. It turned out quite good, but the the features on the moon is still quite blurred out. The the clouds start to obscure the moon and we decided to look at DSOs. No doubt the moon rays white washed the night skies, but some DSO in scorpious can still be seen. We saw M6, M7, NGC6231, IC2602, NGC4755, Venus, saturn, NGC5139. Tried to search for M4 and Centaurus A Galaxy, but failed. The apo was fantastic as the the M6 really looked like a butterfly, as the wings can be easily recognised and made-out and the entire FOV felt like one is doing space-walk.

We also met Bharat and his family. He brought along his Celestron 150 newtonian on a CG4. Managed to take a look and have a nice conversation with him.
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timatworksg
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Post by timatworksg »

Wish I could have been there, but made dinner plans! Glad and happy that you guys had a great time! Good to see Bharat and the family have the usual Enthusiasm! Keep it up bharat!

That is a comical argument over a wire...haha! Must be some high guage, titanium coated, lightning resistant, not electrical, epoxy coated, teflon belted, high tensile strength, multi braided, industrial stainless steel......Kite Wire!!

The moon came out behind some clouds...from where I was. But I spent some time explaining how to see if it's an eclipse or not...lol! The moon is bright enough to hand hold, though with steady hands! I use to carry a small bean bag when I did photography to prop the lens for steady shots. Even with Full Auto you can shoot the moon and get focus. Take a deep breath and hold it, then keep elbows in, legs spread like a tripod and press the shutter gently (not pushing). You could also put the camera against a tree trunk, lamp pole, any pole and use it as a stable base. Standing straight up is not easy when alot of us sway...lol! Good to underexpose a little so you get the details. Blurry details probably came from some sway (wind, shaky hands, breathing, depressing the button to hard) Takes some practice, but it's possible to shoot at 1/30s handheld.

Nice to know you guys got to see some APO's!! It was a clear night considered it's been raining and all! Clouds rolled in after midnight, then heavy rains followed early morn making a great night of sleep!...haha!

Well done guys! I would have chose BK...haha!
My wife never complained about how much time, effort & money I spent on my Astronomy hobby!................suddenly I met her!!!
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fizzy123
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Post by fizzy123 »

Selected pictures of the lunar eclipse taken by me and Guangwei

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Last edited by fizzy123 on Sun Jun 27, 2010 8:01 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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jiahao1986
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Post by jiahao1986 »

shots from NTU~
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Clear skies please...
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weixing
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Post by weixing »

Hi,
fizzy123 wrote:Selected pictures of the lunar eclipse taken by me and Guangwei

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The image tag only work with direct link jpeg file. When you open the image in flickr, click on the "All Sizes" and there will be a direct URL to the photo jpeg. Use that photo URL link in the image tag.

Have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
:mrgreen: "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." :mrgreen:
bharat
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Post by bharat »

Looking at the weather during the last few days, I did'nt really hope to catch a glimpse of the eclipse. However, after seeing clear blue skies at 6 o'clock in the evening, decided to make our way to the ECP. Got a good view of the eclipsed moon on the way but as we reached the obs site, part of the moon got covered by clouds and it remained that way for a large part of the eclipse. Luckily, the southern sky was absolutely clear. Being a darker site than the top level of the MSCP near my house, got a much better view of the jewel box and with Fizzy's help, managed to have a nice view the M6 cluster. Ofcouse, got a pretty nice clear view of my favourite saturn at 300x (5mm eyepiece with barlow). Also saw the moon towards the end of the eclipse as the clouds cleared. The earth's shadow could be clearly seen in the scope.

That was my first outing with my scope. I am still on the learning curve - trying to get to terms with the EQ mount movements - particularly with the position of the eyepiece which keeps shiting from too high to too low as i move the scope around!

Fizzy and Guangwei, it was nice talking to you. Hope to see you in the another obs session.
Sandeep10
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Post by Sandeep10 »

Hi
Here are some of my pics...

http://www.singastro.org/album.php?user_id=989

Clear Sky!
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