Charlie Fredrickson

Lunar Eclipse Viewing at Science Museum

WOW! It was a spectacular lunar eclipse, and ASPB helped the South Florida Science Museum with its big “Luna-See” event. At least 300 people came out for the evening, according to Science Museum staff. Skies were clear for most of the partial phases of the eclipse, and fast-moving clouds permitted intermittent views of totality. The eclipsed moon, smack between Saturn and Regulus in Leo, was a sight to remember! To this observer, it was a relatively bright eclipse, with the moon crossing well away from the center of the umbra.

ASPB members providing telescope support included the Cliftons, the Pepitones, Gary Wasserstein and his big 18", Steven Schiff, Bob Barr, Jeff Nowak, Bill Chazotte and myself (I’m sure I may have omitted some folks…). As always, the public was thrilled to have the opportunity to observe the eclipse, Saturn and other objects. Now we have to wait until 2010 for the next lunar eclipse in our area!

Thanks to those who came and supported this event, and to the Museum for the opportunity to interact with the public.

Charlie

Photo by Palm Beach Post

PostPix from Palm Beach Post

Bob Shanley / The Post

The Old Schoolhouse Childrens Museum host a lunar eclipse viewing at Boynton's Oceanfront Park, Wednesday night. Members of the Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches set up telescopes for people to view the eclipse and other stars and planets visible in the night sky. Here 5-Year-old Joshua Cullison of Lake Worth peers through an 8 inch Newtonian telescope provided by Jim Mayes of Lake Worth, an Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches member. (Bob Shanley / The Post)

Jay Albert

I did a little program in my community (Valencia Shores). I gave a fifteen minute lecture in the classroom of our clubhouse, then set up on the putting green outside for observing in time for the partial phases of the eclipse. I used my Celestron NexStar 6" SCT and fellow ASPB member Bill Goldstein set up his Meade ETX 90. We were later joined by two other Valencia Shores residents I had never met. One set up a 3" refractor and the other also had an ETX 90. We had about 30 people for the lecture and 40-50 people visiting the 4 telescopes outside the clubhouse.

We had mostly clear weather with about a half hour interval of passing clouds. People were fascinated watching the Moon gradually covered by the Earth's shadow and changing color. The Moon seemed more red than orange at mid eclipse to most of us. Our sky had mostly cleared by that time. The biggest hit of the evening, however, was not the Moon, but Saturn. Once I changed to the zoom eyepiece using magnifications from 94x to 188x, the folks could easily see the rings, the moons along the ring plane and Saturn's equatorial belt. In steadier moments at higher powers, the Cassini division could also be seen at the wide ends of the rings. I guess we were lucky, especially considering that we won't get another total lunar eclipse until December, 2010.

Regards,
Jay

Lunar Eclipse Photos

by Tom Sarko

Click the thumbnail to see full-sized picture





All my photos were taken with my NexStar 8" GPS, all but the first two with an f/6.3 reducer/corrector. Camera is a Canon digital Rebel set at ISO 400. Exposures during totality ranged from 0.5 to 2 seconds.