Shot the partial lunar eclipse through the open door as my balcony is pretty wobbly. After one hour the moon hid behind the clouds.
De-orbit burn and fuel dump of the Centaur rocket that launched Landsat 9.
The lunar eclipse of January 21st, 2019, took place under chilly (-8°C/17°F) circumstances. A big difference with last year’s tropical (38°C/100°F) eclipse when over 500 visitors looked at the eclipse. Despite the cold and the early morning hours some 75 observers payed a visit to public observatory Bussloo to witness another nice eclipse.
On the very hot (38°C/100°F) summer evening of Friday 27 July, more than 500 visitors had gathered at public observatory Bussloo transforming the observatory into a festival site. Armed with drinks, chairs, telescopes and binoculars, the darkened moon became visible for the first time at 22.05 CET, more than half an hour after the rise of the moon.
With 1h 48m, this lunar eclipse was the longest in duration of the 21th century.
After a first presentation, I looked outside through the back door; there were already more than 100 visitors waiting in line for the next presentation.
Waiting for the moon to rise.
Waiting for the moon to rise.
Observers on top of the hill were the first to spot the moon rising through thin clouds.
2018-07-27, 21.02 UT, Moon & Mars. Canon 6D II, Sigma ART 135mm, F/1.8, 0.8sec, ISO1600.
2018-07-28, 21.14 UT. Canon 60D, William Optics FLT98, f=618mm, ISO400, 4sec.
2018-07-28, 21.23 UT.Canon 60D, William Optics FLT98, f=618mm, ISO400, 2sec.
2018-07-28, 21.47 UT. Canon 60D, William Optics FLT98, f=618mm, ISO400, 1sec.
2018-07-28, 22.23 UT. Canon 60D, William Optics FLT98, f=618mm, ISO400, 1/800sec.
A crowd of volunteers and visitors gathered at public observatory Bussloo to catch a glimpse of the total lunar eclipse. As so often in the Netherlands it was an ongoing battle with clouds. Two hours before first contact, clouds had started to move in. But the moon remained visible through the clouds whilst totality was approaching. Then, minutes before totality started, a nice big gap in the clouds opened up. It only lasted for 20 minutes when thicker clouds moved in and made any further observations impossible. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed this very beautiful eclipse.
Our annual boys day out; the ATT in Essen. Astronomy gearhead heaven. This year in a new (temporary?) location. A little less exhibitors and downsized booths as compared to last year. Still, a lot to see and drool over.
Despite poor weather forecasts, the sky cleared for a couple of hours right on time for the grazing occultation of star HD69809 (Cancer, m=7.9). The occultation was visible from Public Observatory Bussloo (Netherlands). Six observers in total gathered at the observatory in preparation of the occultation. Hendrik Beijeman and Tom Borger found a place 500m to the south of the predicted limit line and observed two occulations. Jan Maarten WInkel was observing from a site 1400m south of the line and observed a short occultation followed by the complete disappearance of the star. Alex Scholten was the most southern placed observer 1700m south of the line and he saw a complete disappearance. Mark-Jaap and myself observed from the observatory, 250m south of the limit line. Mark-Jaap shot the occultation with a Celestron C8 and Canon EOS 70D in video mode. I used the observatories’ Celestron EdgeHD1400 with a Watec902 camera, a EZCap frame grabber, AME Video Time-Inserter TIM-10 and VirtualDub.
At the observatory two occultations occurred:
21.36.47-21.36.57 and 21.37.44-21.37.45 (timings in UT).
See below movie clip covering the period 21.36.30 – 21.38.00 UT.
20140601, 21.43UT, Canon EOS 5DII, EF24-105mm @28mm, F4.5, 5sec, ISO1000