Posts Tagged ‘telescope’
Lunar Eclipse
Wow. The eclipse last night was something awesome. Not only was this the first lunar eclipse I’ve bear witness to - I was able to see it through three different telescopes.
Now, I missed the first part of the eclipse - the viewing area was on the far side of the city - but the important part where the moon actually passes behind the earths shadow I was able to see and catch on film. This is not a professional photo - it’s my old 2 megapixel camera literally held up to the eye piece. This is however the best one I got and illustrates the three “phases” of the moon during an eclipse (normal, penumbra & umbra).
As the moon goes through the earths shadow it starts to darken as it passes through the penumbra and eventually turns into a rusty red when its fully into the umbra.
Are you Galileo?
I’ve been hanging out with a new buddy of mine and he mentioned that he’s built his own telescope. What?!? I had no idea that people still built their own telescopes - I thought it was just Galileo (yes I’m being facetious).
We chatted for quite some time about this (I’m a sci-fi nut so it’s not too far of a stretch to find common ground).
Apparently Calgary gets to witness a total lunar eclipse on the 27th. I’m going to try to bear witness to the entire thing since I’ve never had the opportunity before. And lucky enough I will get to see it through a homemade telescope to boot!
The eclipse is scheduled to start at 7:14pm (MST) and the moon is fully eclipsed by 8:23pm. It starts coming out of the total eclipse at 9:44pm, nearly and hour and a half! The eclipse finally ends at 10:53pm.
Should be an interesting event to watch.