Author Topic: Eclipse  (Read 6239 times)

Offline Shuggy

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Eclipse
« on: August 28, 2007, 07:05:18 pm »
I've just had a look at my pictures of the eclipse of the moon, which many of you will not have seen.
(Olympus SP-310 digital, tripod, night setting, time delay - should've used centrepoint exposure setting.)

The full moon was very bright (because it was reflecting straight back at us) and there was a long period of doubt before the "eating" by earth's shadow began for sure.

It was awe-inspiring to see so clearly the earth's shadow and the moon's rotundity. By the diffuse light through our atmosphere striking the moon, there was no sign of the craters, only the varying colour of the moon itself. And if you didn't know, it's red because the light has had all the blue sucked out of it to make the sky, though nobody has put it that way.

I didn't get any of mid-eclipse or coming out, because of cloud, and it was getting late here.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2007, 07:56:44 pm »
Terrific photos! Thank you for posting these--
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Offline Wishes

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2007, 09:48:18 pm »
Wow! Incredible photos. Thanks so much for posting them!

I saw a moon eclipse years ago in the early 80. It was cool.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2007, 10:56:40 pm »
Thanks. I think BM is limiting the reproduced size. Try these.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2007, 06:02:21 am by Shuggy »

Offline Kelda

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2007, 03:17:02 am »
wow! brill pics Shuggy, and nice to see you btw!
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Offline Aussie Chris

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2007, 07:03:40 am »
Hi Shuggy.

I was wondering if I could ask a question that you might know the answer to, and hopefully it's not something that absolutely everyone knows and I'm the only daft fool in the world that doesn't...

What is a lunar eclipse, actually?  I mean, as opposed to a new moon?
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2007, 02:55:25 pm »
A lunar eclipse is when the earth gets in the way of the sun shining on the moon, and we actually see the shadow our planet casts on the moon.

A solar eclipse is when the moon gets between the sun and the earth, and we actually can see that the moon is in the way of seeing part of the sun.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2007, 04:54:56 pm »
A lunar eclipse is when the earth gets in the way of the sun shining on the moon, and we actually see the shadow our planet casts on the moon.
Yes, it doesn't happen every month because the moon's orbit around the earth is tilted compared to the earth's orbit around the sun, but they line up every few years.

Quote
A solar eclipse is when the moon gets between the sun and the earth, and we actually can see that the moon is in the way of seeing part of the sun.
Yes, the moon's shadow falls on us. The area of full shadow is much smaller than with a lunar eclipse, because
  • the moon is smaller than the earth, and
  • the moon is much smaller than the sun, so
a total solar eclipse is much rarer than a total lunar eclipse.

Also, everyone on the night side of the earth can see a lunar eclipse because it's on the moon. Only people in the full shadow of the moon on earth experience a total solar eclipse, but it's very impressive. The stars come out, animals go to sleep, and there are strange shadow patterns on the ground. When (or while) a solar eclipse is partial, there's a wonderful effect in dappled light, when every shadow forms tiny crescents.


Offline Aussie Chris

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2007, 05:04:51 pm »
Um, so what is a new moon then?  Isn't that also a shadow cast on the moon by the earth?  Why don't we call that an eclipse too?
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Offline David In Indy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2007, 05:22:38 pm »
Boy, those are great pics Suggy! I tried to take some pictures too, but I broke my tripod last spring and I had to hold my camera in my hand when I took them. And I am very close to the city, and the lights from downtown were washing out the intensity of the moon.

What settings did you use? I used ss=4 sec., ap= F2, spot metering, noise reduction, 8x zoom (analog), OEV -2, ISO 1000.

Nice pics Suggy!  :D
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Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2007, 06:57:16 pm »
Um, so what is a new moon then?  Isn't that also a shadow cast on the moon by the earth?  Why don't we call that an eclipse too?
The dark part of a new moon is the shadow cast on the moon by the moon itself, if you like, but that might be a confusing way to describe it.

Imagine a ball brightly lit, half bright, half in shadow. When it's full, as it was on Tuesday, the sun is directly behind us, shining straight on to it in the direction we're looking, so it looks round and flat (because it's shadowless - or rather, we can't see the shadows).

(SUN)                                                                                           (EARTH)      (MOON)

Two weeks later the moon has moved half way around the earth till we're looking at the side in shadow, but it rises about the time the sun does, so we can't see it at all. (Only if it's exactly in front of the sun we have a solar eclipse.)

(SUN)                                                                       (MOON)        (EARTH)

A day or two later when it's at a slight angle, we see a sliver of the bright half, and all but a sliver of the dark half. That is the new moon.


(SUN)                                                                                          (EARTH)
                                                                               (MOON)


(There is no permanently "dark side of the moon", though the same side always faces us; when our side is dark, the other side is lit.)

Sometimes the light reflected off the earth is bright enough to reflect back off the dark part of the new moon and back to us, and we can see "the old moon in the new moon's arms".

This stuff really ought to be taught in school. It's fairly basic to understanding our place in the Universe.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2007, 07:14:48 pm »
Boy, those are great pics Suggy! I tried to take some pictures too, but I broke my tripod last spring and I had to hold my camera in my hand when I took them. And I am very close to the city, and the lights from downtown were washing out the intensity of the moon.

What settings did you use? I used ss=4 sec., ap= F2, spot metering, noise reduction, 8x zoom (analog), OEV -2, ISO 1000.

Nice pics Suggy!  :D
Thanks!

My camera is also digital but much less professional and I used the automatic setting for night photography. It seemed to take a second or two. Because of the huge dark sky, it overexposed the full moon, but got the eclipsed moon about right. I still haven't found how to measure spot exposures.

I have seen a simple formula for exposing film for the moon. Because the lit surface of the moon is always the same brightness (except during an eclipse) it was something like 1/filmspeed at a particular aperture, or the equivalent at other apertures (ie if one goes up one step, the other goes down one). But when I Goggled it, it proves to be more comlicated.

Offline Katie77

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2007, 09:09:16 pm »
Fantastic pics Shuggy.....

I stood out on my balcony and watched it over here in Australia as well....it was amazing....
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #13 on: August 29, 2007, 09:38:31 pm »
I thought some people might not know that Shuggy probably took these in New Zealand, where he lives.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #14 on: August 29, 2007, 10:03:20 pm »
I thought some people might not know that Shuggy probably took these in New Zealand, where he lives.
I did, and I'm lucky to live far from bright city lights.

Offline Aussie Chris

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2007, 07:48:43 am »
The dark part of a new moon is the shadow cast on the moon by the moon itself, if you like, but that might be a confusing way to describe it.

No, actually this is the easiest part to get - thank you.

Quote
This stuff really ought to be taught in school. It's fairly basic to understanding our place in the Universe.

It was.  Like I said I didn't understand.  Most depictions of space are shown in 2D.  Until now I didn't understand that it was actually the moon that was casting a shadow on itself.  Sorry to have been so stupid as to not get a basic universal understanding.
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Offline Shuggy

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Re: Eclipse
« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2007, 05:25:12 pm »
Most depictions of space are shown in 2D.
3D's not much better when they don't do it right, as they didn't on our TV. We saw a 3/4 moon with a splodge of red appearing about half way around. Ridiculous. I always found those diagrams hard to understand where they packed all the moons into one circle, and put the appearance from earth above each one. Nowadays it ought to be easy enough (with the right software) to create a 3D moving image that shows it very clearly. I have a copy of someone's avatar...

Now that takes a month. The eclipse would be over in a flash at that rate, during the moment when the moon is full.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2007, 05:33:14 pm by Shuggy »