Penumbral Lunar Eclipse tonight - 28 Nov 2012

[Gary]

There is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse happening tonight which will be visible in Singapore if the sky is clear.

Date: 28 November 2012
Time: 8:15 pm to - 12:51 am
Greatest Eclipse: 10:33 pm

More info: http://www.astro.sg/2012/11/penumbral-l ... -2012.html

[starfinder]

Thanks for the heads-up, Gary. And great write up on your blog.

I plan to look out for the event tonight.

According to the NASA eclipses website, this will be a relatively deep penumbral eclipse with a magnitude of 0.9155, though its not a 'total' penumbral eclipse which is quite rare:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2012. ... 2012Nov28N
"Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of November 28.

The last lunar eclipse of 2012 is a deep penumbral eclipse with a magnitude of 0.9155. It should be easily visible to the naked eye as a dusky shading in the northern half of the Moon. The times of the major phases are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 12:14:58 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 14:33:00 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 16:51:02 UT

Note that the beginning and end of a penumbral eclipse are not visible to the eye. In fact, no shading can be detected until about 2/3 of the Moon's disk is immersed in the penumbra. This would put the period of eclipse visibility from approximately 14:00 to 15:00 UT. Keep in mind that this is only an estimate. Atmospheric conditions and the observer's visual acuity are important factors to consider. An interesting exercise is to note when penumbral shading is first and last seen."


Some more general info:
"For most penumbral eclipses, the penumbral magnitude is less than 1 meaning only a fraction of the Moon's disk enters the penumbra. When the penumbral magnitude is greater than or equal to 1.0, the Moon's entire disk is immersed in the penumbra and the event is termed a total penumbral eclipse. It should be noted that penumbral eclipses are subtle events. In fact, they cannot be detected visually - with or without optical aid - unless the eclipse magnitude is greater than ˜0.6. ..."
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/figure.html

And more here:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/appearance.html

[Airconvent]

mmm..thanks for the heads up Gary. Just popped out to take a quick peek with my kid and did not really see the difference. Guess its smaller than I thought.

[Gary]

@starfinder - Do post your eclipse photos when they are ready. Looking forward to seeing and tweeting them.

@airconvent - Glad you guys manage to take peek while Moon was still clear. Happy to know your kid now have experiential knowledge how or how not a penumbral lunar eclipse looks like.

Jupiter Opposition next Monday!

[superiorstream]

Hi,Gary
Shot throughout the eclipse.Want some photos?If so I can email you so you can post up here.Anyway observed that eclipse most prominent showing is between 9:30pm to 11:20pm;after that hard to distinguish whether eclipse or not.Thanks.

[Gary]

Hi,Gary
Shot throughout the eclipse.Want some photos?If so I can email you so you can post up here.Anyway observed that eclipse most prominent showing is between 9:30pm to 11:20pm;after that hard to distinguish whether eclipse or not.Thanks.

Most welcomed! Send them all!

[superiorstream]

Hi,All
Here 's 5+1 photos of the eclipse--shot thr Haze.Basically northern part of the moon in eclipse.Thanks for watching.
Gary--pls check your mail--just sent.Thanks again.

[starfinder]

Notwithstanding the heavy cloud cover, I managed to view the penumbral eclipse last night at about 8:30pm and then on-and-off from 9:30pm to 11pm.

Below are two photos of the Moon. The first was taken at 8:39pm when about 15-20% of it was in the penumbral shadow (as can be seen from the screenshot taken from the SkySafari Plus app for Android). The second photo was taken at 10:40pm just after the maximum magnitude of eclipse (0.91).

As can be seen from the screenshot, the Moon progressively entered into the penumbra from the bottom left as seen from Singapore. At maximum, a small sliver at the top right was the only region not covered.

I spent quite some time observing the Moon from 9:30pm to 11pm. After the Moon was more than 50% in the penumbra, with the unaided eyes I could tell that the bottom left half was definitely darker; with 15x50 binos, this was even more apparent, and the bottom left half appeared at most half as bright as the top right half. I took into account that the bottom left half consisted more of the darker lunar seas ("mare') regions.

The difference is also apparent in the photo (I think only in the second one). Photos taken with a 75-300mm lens at 300mm; images brightness/contrast adjusted.

PS: SkySafari is amazing. It even shows the penumbra shadow region on the Moon when viewed from a particular place!

http://img14.picoodle.com/i5bt/starfind ... _u8s7b.jpg

[Gary]

Awesome report and photo! Thanks for sharing.

[Gary]

Eclipse photos by Mr Chia. Enjoy! IIRC, there are 2 penumbral lunar eclipse next year.