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Old 04-15-2014, 08:44 PM   #1
Urbane Guerrilla
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Thumbs up Lunar Eclipse Night of 14-15 April 2014

Observed it throughout totality. For most of the time, clouds stayed clear of where the moon was, in Virgo near Spica.

The Moon was just entering totality when I started watching, thanks to the wife making timely mention that I really should go look, and a good thing too -- I'd been thinking it was tomorrow night, but "Hey, wait a minute -- midnight Tuesday? Which way, 0001 PDT or 2355ish PDT...?"

Sure enough, just a little thumbnail-paring of lit up Moon visible at meridian, and the sooty look of the Moon's face in eclipse. It transpired according to the predictions; as the Moon moved fully into shadow it became increasingly orange-red, and dim enough to show a small star just to its 12 o'clock. Mars was prominent in Virgo to the Moon's 2 o'clock and 9 or 10 degrees away, guesstimated from my binoculars' 7.1-degree field.

The Moon's western limb stayed brightest for a while, then the brightest part of the much reddened eclipsed Moon gradually shifted to the southern limb and then came round to the southeastern limb, where the Moon began to break into full sunlight again around 0130. And by 0140 the local clouds had thickened up again, though not before I could note that dim small star was now at the Moon's 1 o'clock, before the increasing brightness of the moon washed that star out beyond resolving with 7x50 binocs. Spica, nearby generally at the Moon's 4 o'clock, was bright enough to compete with the Moon's light and to punch through the cloud and haze, which seemed low-lying and not remarkably thick, but sufficient to obscure all but the brighter stars.

A highlight of the night was getting my shit together about where to find Saturn -- in Libra, about as bright to the eye as Libra's main stars, Zugenelgenubi and the other one. Making a right triangle with the two, making that retrograde track that will take it close to Zubenelgenubi. I had been confusing Mars in Virgo with Saturn... Saturn to the eye is dimmish, compared to the likes of Jupiter, which set in the west during the eclipse.

There were miscellaneous neighbors who came out to observe too. I let anyone who was close enough borrow my binocs. Some of the most fun I've had at night but out of bed this year!
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Old 04-15-2014, 08:55 PM   #2
glatt
 
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Excellent.

It was a bit too cloudy up in these parts. Glad you got to enjoy it.
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Old 04-17-2014, 04:35 PM   #3
BigV
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cloudy here too.
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