Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: The Partial Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow Morning
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents The Partial Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow Morning November 19th. In this episode Chris and Shane discuss how and when to see the early morning Lunar Eclipse on November 19th 2021, what equipment to use and their plans for braving -20C weather to try and see the sight for themselves. Some brief history and science surrounding eclipses is also mentioned as well as how to see it online should you be clouded out.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
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Transcript:
Chris Beckett
00:02
Welcome to episode 171 of the actual astronomy podcast i’m Chris and joining me and shame your amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky in this podcast is for anyone else to likes going out under the stars.
00:15
We have a partial eclipse coming early Friday morning here for us.
00:21
In North America and I guess all the the Americas things visible from everywhere in the Americas North and South America and in some other places, so yeah you excited for the shame.
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Shane Ludtke
00:31
kind of this is a pretty cool eclipse in terms of its place in history.
00:38
You know, and this goes back to conversations we’ve had about how the media, sometimes picks up on, you know super moons and super duper moons and whatever else they they categorize and and i’m just sort of disappointing that this one’s not getting a little more fanfare.
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Chris Beckett
00:54
It is.
00:55
yeah, so why, why is that what’s special about this one.
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Shane Ludtke
00:58
So this is the longest lasting lunar eclipse.
01:04
For like since 1440 but then we have to wait like another 600 and some odd years until we have one as long.
01:12
So that’s incredible you know I don’t know how close it is in terms of like you know this one’s I think three and a half hours i’m not sure.
01:22
Yet if the next one is like three hours, and you know 27 minutes or something like I don’t know how big of a gap it actually is, but it’s it’s pretty cool just to think that you know, this is really truly a once in a lifetime lunar eclipse in terms of how long it’ll last.
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Chris Beckett
01:38
yeah The other thing about this eclipse we’re gonna we’re gonna get into more of this for this podcast this podcast is for the 365 days of astronomy and we will release this on Thursday on our podcast stream and 365 days of astronomy.
01:55
shouldn’t be 365 nights of astronomy anyway.
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Shane Ludtke
01:59
You can do astronomy during the day.
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Chris Beckett
02:00
I get Oh yes, you solar observers yeah anyway so.
02:05
So we’re doing this we’re going to release it and then and then sort of late that night early Friday morning from for most of.
02:13
Those of us who will be able to see this will have the opportunity to to observe a lunar eclipse but it’s a partial lunar eclipse but this partial is.
02:28
Almost a full lunar eclipse it’s 97% covered by the earth’s shadow so it’s not a full lunar eclipse but it’s about as much of a partial.
02:41
As you can get right before it is a full lunar eclipse and it’s going to spend much of that three and a half hours inside the shadow.
02:49
Of the earth, so I think it could be a very interesting one, because I i’ve seen a similar one before, and that was the most interesting lunar eclipse that I ever saw so this one could be a really cool event to watch.
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Shane Ludtke
03:05
yeah i’m excited for it, I hope we have good weather for it here, we were just talking prior to pressing record that it’s who knows what what is that data as long as it’s clear, I will be observing it.
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Chris Beckett
03:18
yeah and you know it’s something you can observe from from a city, because, basically, what happens is, we can hopefully we can all find a spot in the city cities where we’re live and if you’re not in the city should have no trouble at all.
03:32
find the moon, and then sort of at at the appointed iris we’ll get into that here in a moment, you can actually see the moon begin to darken and it looks it almost looks at first like someone took a bite out of the moon.
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Shane Ludtke
03:44
yeah yeah it’s really neat to watch it form right from beginning to you know, I guess, in this case to you know as full of an eclipse is it’ll get at 97% and then, when it starts to come over to the eclipse it’s it’s really neat.
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Chris Beckett
03:58
And, and then you know as your as you’re watching this because it’s not an entirely full eclipse will be 3% of the moon will still be off.
04:08
The darkest part of the earth shadow, but it will still be in the earth shadow, and so you might get like a really beautiful.
04:16
gradient of colors passing over the the surface of that lunar disk over the course of that three hours but At first it just looks like someone took a bite, and then the the portion of the illuminated desk shrinks and you see like this sort of.
04:35
It doesn’t it doesn’t look like the moon necessarily looks like when it’s at a crescent phase, or you know when it’s waxing or waning, but it.
04:43
It definitely there’s like a larger and larger hunk taken out of it, it looks a little bit odd and then.
04:48
Once it kind of gets to a certain point you start to see these colors and I think that by only being.
04:54
You know 3% illuminated I think we’ll still definitely get those colors but how much or how little of those we get it’s going to be, I think a pretty fascinating thing to to see, and I think we still should probably get some pretty good colors there.
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Shane Ludtke
05:09
yeah that’s always the interesting part of the Lunar eclipse is just what colors will you see and how how deep are pronounced is that color I remember one eclipse oh gee this would be probably about 12 or so years ago.
05:24
It was really hard to tell that anything was occurring like it really like the moon wasn’t as bright but, like the colors really didn’t come through, but then.
05:35
You know, probably the last one that I saw was like kind of a real deep red, it was it was really pretty.
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Chris Beckett
05:41
yeah I think the last really good one we had was in was in the early autumn about maybe six years ago and it was like a warm evening.
05:52
And I was, I was teaching my astronomy class and we actually made.
05:56
arrangements to to go to the park in in a really.
06:00
sort of common area like a like an area where people tend to gather and I sort of had.
06:04
had gone and scouted it out, because it wouldn’t really matter how much like was run there’s there’s a few lights in the general area, but you know I kind of wanted people feel.
06:13
You know, safe and and have a place that was very accessible for people and it turned it, you know, and it was also within walking distance to make so, so I think I like parked there and we walked over together and he brought over his binoculars and.
06:28
You know we all, we all stood there and it’s near the legislature here in the city, and so there was lots of people around and ahead.
06:35
The people who are attending my astronomy class bring their binoculars and we all viewed the eclipse and as as the moon went into that full eclipse phase we ended up.
06:46
You know, looking for some deep sky objects, so I was able to kind of help guide people to find like the andromeda galaxy and the double cluster and you know a few of the of the grade.
06:57
autumn objects to to look at in the sky sort of well we looked at at the Lunar eclipse and it was that was a very cool experience and like you said it was a very red lunar eclipse and we had a we had a nice view of it, but do you have any other happy lunar eclipse memory shane.
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Shane Ludtke
07:15
um yeah i’m just actually sending you an image of that.
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Chris Beckett
07:18
Oh.
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Shane Ludtke
07:19
Of that eclipse I I was not with you and Mike but I was imaging in the backyard and.
07:24
It was it was really good yeah like that really took on some amazing color that was September.
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Chris Beckett
07:30
27 2013 there you go it’s six years ago, just like I said I.
07:34
guess six five or six years ago, six years ago and yeah I got a heavier image now, then we did another one oh there it is yeah and so you could see on this one, and maybe you can tweet this this image out.
07:47
But you can see there how there’s a little bit of the moon still illuminated yeah.
07:52
And you know, I wonder if this one is going to look very similar to that one that we saw in in September of 2015 I.
08:02
think that.
08:03
What your image there shows I think that’s what we’re going to see.
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Shane Ludtke
08:07
yeah I think that would be my expectation as well because yeah i’ll certainly tweet this out so everybody can see it.
08:15
Which is our Twitter is at actual astronomy, just in case you were wondering.
08:20
But yeah in this image like there’s a just a real you know kind of thin sliver on the outer limb of the moon, I guess, in the you know whether that be the south east corner.
08:31
No, sorry Southwest corner or quadrant and you know it just has its natural grey where’s the rest of the moon is you know varying shades of kind of red and orange.
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Chris Beckett
08:42
yeah i’m really hoping that that we see something very similar to this, I think that image really captures what I have in my mind.
08:50
That we’re going to see and I don’t know if this was even longer ago this is more like maybe 10 or 11 years ago wasn’t too long after I moved here, but we went up to.
09:01
To the to the hill there in the park with the astronomy club, and this was in I think it was in December January or something I remember it was cold and snow on the ground, and it was you know was like into the minus teens and.
09:16
And we set up our scopes and it was going to be an eclipse that started and the moon was going to send during full eclipse did you come and watch that one with me all went up for breakfast afterwards.
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Shane Ludtke
09:26
yeah that was early morning, no, I did not, I watch that from the comfort of my coach looking through a window, because it is very cold that morning.
09:36
yeah and you know this is just kind of a sidebar Chris, this is a cool thing about were one of the many cool things about lunar eclipses is.
09:44
You don’t need optical equipment to observe them you really just need your eyes and if it is you know too cold or whatever the circumstances might be, if you can see it out of your window.
09:55
This is one of the few astronomical events that you know go ahead and do it, it, you know the windows not really going to add any sort of issues, you know, whereas.
10:04
If you’re trying to use telescopes are binoculars through a window that that added glass sometimes can really add some distortion so.
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Chris Beckett
10:10
yeah and and in fact this watching lunar eclipses is how I really got into amateur astronomy so my mother was always getting me to go out and and watch them.
10:23
I had an interest, and she was cultivating that interest and kind of what really pushed me over the top, was we we were on the coast like at our place on the coast.
10:37
They still live, and we have a floating dock and there’s like a walkway down to that floating up between the regular.
10:46
Physical Doc and then the Doc that floats for those those that aren’t aware of how these things work and then that floating dock rises and lowers with with the tides, and so we actually.
10:57
We were listening at St mary’s university, they were kind of doing interviews on CBC every other half an hour or something like that, for, for whatever reason, or they did a bunch.
11:06
And they were playing them and and and they’re actually clouded out in in Halifax we’re about 50 kilometers away.
11:12
And it was clear where we were, and I was able to kind of listen to them talking about the eclipse because they were kind of going to the history and other things and.
11:20
You know just sort of chatting with eclipses in general, because I don’t think they were able to see it or not see it well, and we are actually able to to listen to them talking about it.
11:28
Well, we actually rolled up into our, I guess, we were, I think, was rising, the time is rising at the time and.
11:35
So we’re actually able to feel the physical effects of the moon on us because run this floating dock is it’s rising with the tide while we’re watching a lunar eclipse take place.
11:45
And that experience really that’s really what pushed me in you know from being sort of a casual watching lunar eclipses some meteor showers identifying a few constellations and just entering the Milky Way in the summer.
11:58
That actually somebody who gets out when it’s when it’s like minus 20 to observe these things.
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Shane Ludtke
12:03
yeah that’s pretty neat story.
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Chris Beckett
12:04
yeah So do you have any other do you have any any other sort of memorable experiences of of lunar eclipses have you have you seen a lot of them i’ve seen them all that have been visible wherever i’ve been.
12:17
As long as it’s been clear for the past many decades since as a small child so.
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Shane Ludtke
12:22
yeah so so my observations wouldn’t go quite as far back in time, but I would say, probably for about the last 20 or so years i’ve i’ve seen every eclipse every lunar eclipse that has been visible here.
12:37
Provided that the conditions allowed it but really my two most memorable ones are the one we talked about in 2015 just because of how impressive the color was and.
12:45
It was such a beautiful.
12:47
evening, it was just warm.
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Chris Beckett
12:49
Oh yeah.
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Shane Ludtke
12:50
The sky eyes were perfectly clear, like you, couldn’t have asked for a better night, it was just wonderful.
12:56
So that was great and then the other one you referenced that early morning one I just again it was such a unique experience, because I was just on my coach I had a blanket on.
13:05
And it was just wonderful to watch it out the window and it was just a pleasurable experience again so those two really stand up for me.
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Chris Beckett
13:13
yeah there was one I watched I think it might have been, it was either a partial or a penumbral and I remember, for some reason, the media was was, I think, maybe because it was like a super moon back when super moons for first becoming a thing.
13:28
And, and they they were really fascinated that there is this eclipse quote unquote when when it was taken place, but you really couldn’t see that much it was just a partial or a penumbral and we’ll get into that here in a second and.
13:41
You know, and I observed a you know really only because they were you know they wanted me to kind of come on the radio again in the morning, so did one interview, one day, and I did another interview, the next day and.
13:53
yeah I mean it was it was kind of a cool way to kind of talk to the public and reach a wider audience about you know these sort of events, but at the same time, like you were saying at the start, sometimes.
14:03
What the media sort of latches on to unfortunately isn’t isn’t for the prime event, and here we have this, this is really going to be a cool event here and it’s going to happen pressing in the middle of the night anyway, but maybe we’ll just talk, talk more in general terms, now.
14:19
But what is a lunar eclipse what’s happening here what’s going on.
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Shane Ludtke
14:24
Well, basically, so when we see the moon at night, the moon is really just reflecting sunlight, you know the sun.
14:33
is set for for us, so we can’t see it or we’re not experiencing any of its light, however, you know the angles in space, the moon, is still able to receive some of that sunlight and reflects it back to us now what lunar eclipses is when the moon passes into the earth shadow so.
14:54
The the majority of the light that you know the moon would typically reflect back to us is gone.
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Chris Beckett
15:00
yeah it’s it’s surprising to some people, so the moon, and the planets they do not shine in the visible spectrum under their own luminance.
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Shane Ludtke
15:10
yeah it’s all reflected sunlight.
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Chris Beckett
15:12
it’s it’s all reflected sunlight from from our son they’re not they’re not shining because they’re you know they’re just a bunch of people burning candles are holding up lighters or anything like that up there.
15:22
And like you said yeah the Lunar eclipse they they happen because our moon is reflecting sunlight it’s full so its opposite the sun in our night sky so it’s catching the most sunlight can from from our perspective, and then it wanders into our our earth shadow.
15:42
Which is pretty cool so there’s three kinds of lunar eclipses there’s the total lunar eclipse there’s the partial, which is what we have this time and there’s the penumbral.
15:53
So this this total the total eclipse is is often seen to be the best because the moon, is going to go and become completely.
16:04
immersed in the main part of the earth shadow and that’s called the ombre that’s that’s like the main part of the earth shadow and there’s these two parts there’s the Umbra that’s that’s what we’re looking for that’s what we want the moon to enter.
16:22
And then there’s the penumbra and that’s just sort of the the outer sort of dusky area of earth shadow, and now, when we have a a penumbral eclipse.
16:38
You can’t really see those can you I went and observe one of those months and that they’re not really that visible, are they.
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Shane Ludtke
16:45
No, no, like it’s hard to really tell it from just like a I don’t know I guess sort of a normal phase moon in a way.
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Chris Beckett
16:53
yeah yeah yeah it, you know, basically, what what you see with the penumbral eclipse is just such a mild shading of the moon honestly i’ve observed a few of those and.
17:07
You can’t really tell it almost seems like maybe some high Hayes has developed and you wouldn’t notice it like at all if there was any kind of cloud or anything at all in the sky, whereas a.
17:20
Full eclipse like even if there’s some cloud like you’re still going to see it as the moon kind of pokes in and out of the cloud and.
17:27
And if there’s like i’ve seen an under like heavy ice crystals there were observing and when it was minus 20 and, yes, no question it’s it’s a lunar eclipse and that’s what’s happening versus.
17:37
A penumbral eclipse yeah you’re you’re not really going to see it as much, and then the partial eclipse as well, often with those you’re just seeing that that a little bite out of the moon, but.
17:50
But this one we’re going to we’re going to see more than just a little bit we’re going to see 97% of the moon enter the the earth shadow, which is going to be.
17:58
Which is going to be pretty cool and it’s going to be for a long time to on the morning of the 19th of November this year we’re going to see.
18:06
The longest one that we’ve had in about 580 years and it’s going to be just under three and a half hours, so that is a is a pretty significant piece of timing.
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Shane Ludtke
18:15
yeah yeah it’s it’s huge and the Nice part about, that is, you can.
18:20
You can kind of go about you know other other things, if you want, you know read your email do do whatever you would like, because this is not a like a super fast occurring event, but it is neat to watch it progress over that period of time.
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Chris Beckett
18:33
yeah so if the moon, though, if the moon is entering earth shadow, like, for example, if if if we’re walking down down a street and.
18:44
You know, and here we have these beautiful horizons, you know have him watched some of the ghost towns here in saskatchewan it’s pretty cool.
18:51
And and it’s sort of getting the sun’s getting low on the horizon and our shadow has been cast on the ground it’s just like a like a black shadow basically more or less.
19:02
But lunar eclipses they’re not black are they.
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Shane Ludtke
19:06
No, no, no, they they take on different colors.
19:11
You know, varying shades I always describe it as varying shades of either orange or red and sometimes both.
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Chris Beckett
19:20
yeah and they call they call this this scale of coloration of the moon that Dan john scale, so we can have very dark.
19:30
eclipses that would be like zero if if it did just basically become invisible and I saw one of these once.
19:39
Just as I first started using telescopes I had borrowed a see nine a little maqsood of Castle green from.
19:47
A neighbor who owned a photographic store and he he let me borrow this it had like a 45 degree day villain and I watched it.
19:56
And it turned like it turned very dark they see that’s a Dan john one at dark eclipse it was Gray to brown in color and then I went in for five minutes and I came out and I couldn’t even find them.
20:09
couldn’t even find it at all, it basically disappeared yeah it took a long time to refine it like with my binoculars I never quite seen up for now I was at sea level and.
20:22
You know, depending on what the tides do where I grew up, I can can help to to bring in some some he’s and that sort of thing so maybe that played into it, but I never seen one that dark before that one really was dark and when I finally got the telescope on it.
20:39
The boy it just you could barely tell it was it was just like blotting out some stars, I actually just.
20:45
end up not even observing much of it, because it was so dark I just end up doing astronomy and you know started kind of panning around the sky, with the with the scene, I need to look at it.
20:54
Then, then we have Dan john to which other sort of very rust dark rusty colored ones in your photo we actually got quite a few.
21:05
areas on the moon, that that have that rust color and then at Dan john three we have this red brick color and that’s where the moon, is in the in the umbral shadow versus the to the the rust colored area is caused by the dark central shadow.
21:22
And, and the sort of outer lines of the central shadow are causing that rust colored the umbral area of the shadow that that central portion of birth shadow it causes that red brick to yellow.
21:35
coppery red part and and that’s a Dan john force, we have from zero very dark one is sort of a grey brown the engine to is rust colored three is bright colored and four is is like a coppery.
21:49
Red might even have some Turquoise colors on the edge just depending on on where the moon, is in the shadow and what’s going to be really neat.
21:59
about this partial eclipse on Friday morning is that the moon is kind of kind of go through each part of the earth shadow, while this event takes place and it’s going to be a very long one, so super excited for it.
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Shane Ludtke
22:13
yeah yeah can’t wait hoping to see lots of different color throughout the whole.
22:19
eclipse I guess.
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Chris Beckett
22:21
yeah and so yeah let’s just talk briefly about how to see them what to use do you need a telescope.
22:30
Do you need binoculars.
22:31
Can you stand on your head like what what’s the best way to see these things.
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Shane Ludtke
22:35
Just yeah just like I said earlier, just your eyeballs you know comfortable chairs, you know be warm and use your eyeballs that’s all you really need.
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Chris Beckett
22:43
yeah it’s it’s really neat you don’t need to use a telescope you know I often will set up a telescope when a lunar eclipse is taking place, because.
22:53
I own them, and it can be kind of neat to to watch them progress over the Lunar surface but, honestly, you don’t really see much more than with binoculars so really binoculars have had become like my favorite tool.
23:08
To see a lunar eclipse with because you know you can kind of.
23:12
You know, see the darkening and the colors just a little bit differently, but yeah you don’t actually need anything at all to watch the Lunar eclipse for so for people out there listening.
23:23
They can go out and just see this event, and they can see all these different colors that we talked about just with their eye.
23:30
And you don’t need anything but, if you do have a pair of binoculars even like an old dusty pair of binoculars that is sitting on a shelf somewhere or you go to goodwill or a place.
23:40
That sells used, you know equipment at all or use products.
23:46
You can find a really good inexpensive pair of binoculars or you know, most people have a pair of binoculars or or a pair pretty easily and I definitely always recommend.
23:55
Having a pair of binoculars to look at the night sky and when you look at these sort of events anyway, on what your thoughts are on that chain.
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Shane Ludtke
24:01
For sure like like I mentioned, this is not a super fast occurring event like you have three and a half hours to watch this thing progress so during that time you could do a lot of other observing and you know, having a telescope or some binoculars would certainly allow you to do that.
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Chris Beckett
24:18
yeah and again, though, like really probably the best thing to use the cassette is just just your eyes you’re going to look at it just with your eyes quite a bit.
24:26
And to be comfortable so one of there’s a few things you’ll need to be comfortable here here we’re going to be at.
24:31
says, an orbit night low I think of minus 10 or minus 11 but, before the windchill minus 20 is what we’re going to experience here with the windchill and.
24:40
So i’ll put on my my line pants a pair of boots probably long underwear going to dress pretty warm and then i’ll take out my camping chair and I have a reclining camping chair, that I can.
24:54
You know, set set the back at at a greater angle than 90 degrees, so you can actually very comfortably sort of lay back in it, maybe grab an old sleeping bag throw that over me have my binoculars there and.
25:06
And yeah just just sort of casually watch they’ll probably watch it for you know 10 or 15 minutes at a time when kind of get warmed up.
25:14
And then, and then go back to kind of 15 minutes on 15 minutes off and then try to watch like that that main part is to happens.
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Shane Ludtke
25:22
yeah yeah I think that’s a really good plan.
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Chris Beckett
25:24
So where are we gonna see this thing where who can who can see this.
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Shane Ludtke
25:30
um well as, as you mentioned at the start I think it’s really all of the Americas now, I think, North America gets to see the whole thing.
25:41
South America.
25:44
I think sees most of it or all of it, I can’t I can’t really remember actually.
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Chris Beckett
25:49
They see it start to happen, but like you said that the best spot is probably getting you know sort of halfway between Easter island and Hawaii.
25:58
But, but really for for all of North America, with the exclusion of like of the very eastern coast of North America will be able to see the entire thing the east coast and South America, the the eclipse.
26:13
will still be taking place at moon set, but people will see it go into eclipse and then I think they get to see the bulk of the eclipse happen, and then the eclipse I think it’s just coming out of eclipse depending on where you are.
26:27
You know, as as the moon is setting so you’ll see you’ll see most of it.
26:32
For for Europe, and you have to be in sort of North Eastern sort of North Western Europe in order to see any of it like you know if you were in I guess northern England.
26:46
you’d be able to see some of it and then it’s then it’s going to said, maybe like parts of Finland, Sweden and that’s the thing some parts of.
26:55
North West Africa would be able to see it and then sort of on on the flip side over in New Zealand they’ll actually see it much as as you would see it in South America you’ll you’ll be able to see it and then build the eclipse will be taking place at moonrise.
27:11
sort of the reverse you’ll see that moonrise same in Australia will will see it and moonrise as well and same with with Japan kind of looking at a map and then kind of kind of reading and interpreting and then there’s there’s parts of like China and.
27:26
And Russia that will kind of get it just just look at the last little bit just just that moon rise sort of, and I think that ends up being like on Thursday the 18th for those individuals just kind of the way the international.
27:39
Time system works so so watch watch your local planetarium software timing in places that aren’t for North America, because i’m not going to go and do that calculation for everybody.
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Shane Ludtke
27:53
yeah makes sense.
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Chris Beckett
27:54
But we have we have we have several listeners I know in Australia and Japan so i’m trying to trying to make sure I include all of those folks they will be able to see it at moonrise I think on On the 18th.
28:08
So, this one is is part of the Lunar psaros series 126 months we’ve got a lunar Sarah series 126 and osiris repeats every 18 years and and 11 days give or take and and there’s a total of 70 lunar eclipses and events for 14 total lunar eclipses that take place in the syrah so.
28:36
These lunar eclipses have been known since neo Babylonian times in the late BC and the services, a period of exactly 223 six months or about 18 years.
28:49
So just trying to you know i’m not really that familiar with the service and how these things work, but I do know that, like the sun and the moon cycle.
28:56
They do go through these these periods of several years and where they they orbit in certain ways and then those those orbits.
29:05
repeat, you know and then that’s what we’re seeing here is this 18 year repetition, so if you saw the Lunar eclipse 18 years ago than the one that we’re seeing this week is in a way, like like a like a similar repetition of Batman because the orbits of all kind of realigned.
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Shane Ludtke
29:23
Okay okay learn something new every day.
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Chris Beckett
29:26
There you go there you go and I am interested sort of the history of all this, the Ancient Greek starkness of samples, he was able to work out the earth.
29:35
The earth shadow projected on the moon, could be used to determine the diameter of the earth and era starkest used our stuff and he’s previous measurements of the earth’s diameter to deduce that the moon earth distance.
29:51
Was you know basically pretty pretty accurate in terms of how far how far it is a way and then later Copernicus and then told me we’re actually able to to to get that refined read down to pretty much what the modern estimate is.
30:10
So with lunar eclipses there, they were also used to improve our understanding of longitude you know back in in you know the the Apollo mission time they used.
30:23
reflectors on the moon, to begin to determine, you know how fast the moon is after we’ve been towards us and moving way entrance at the moon is slowly drifting away from us and.
30:35
Their best able to do those measurements by bouncing lasers off those.
30:38
reflectors and those can be best accomplished during lunar eclipses I knew that I knew that happened, but I didn’t know that lunar eclipses played any part in that until I started kind of digging around this.
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Shane Ludtke
30:49
yeah I did not know that either and that’s pretty cool.
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Chris Beckett
30:52
yeah then some of the other more recent things that have happened is there was, like the Lunar reconnaissance orbiter and they were actually able to use the Lunar eclipses to.
31:01
to work out some of the properties of the regolith on the moon, because as as the as the moon entered the earth shadow, and they were able to use like.
31:11
A lot of different calculations and science math and all the stuff to actually figure out.
31:16
Based on the heating and cooling of the Lunar surface during an eclipse you know what the properties like what kind of materials with the surface of the moon, be made out of in order to get the readings, that they were seeing.
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Shane Ludtke
31:31
Now we know.
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Chris Beckett
31:31
Now you know, and you know now shane you took a photograph of the moon and there’s probably lots of people out there.
31:37
that are more interested in photography photographic the moon, then the early history of lunar observations and lunar eclipse observations, so how did you take the photograph you took of the moon, and how could people take a spectacular photo like you took of the moon for themselves.
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Shane Ludtke
31:54
yeah so you know I guess another cool thing about the moon, or in this case lunar eclipses is you do not need like a lot of fancy photography gear to photograph it.
32:06
You know, if you want to take a picture of a galaxy or a nebula you need you need like a tracking mount you need to do a whole bunch of.
32:15
Like flats and things like you know with you, your with your camera capture certain frames, so that it assists the processing and anyway it’s it’s a big process the moon is is super easy to photograph you just need a camera and a tripod.
32:31
And maybe you don’t even need the tripod if you can hold the camera real steady, but I do recommend a tripod.
32:39
So really what you need for them, if you want to get some nice photos of the Lunar eclipse you need a camera that you can customize or control the settings like put it into manual mode and.
32:54
The first thing to do is work on your focus and that’s probably the hardest part of the whole process, because in manual mode.
33:00
You know the manual focus is required so take a few shots make sure it’s as crisp, as you can get it once you have that.
33:10
Then really it’s just a matter of playing with your ISO settings you probably not going to take a very long exposed photo probably a second at the very longest is all you need with the moon, because of how bright, it is, which means you don’t have to track it.
33:26
Now the the ice ISO setting is basically the sensitivity that your camera has to light, so you can just play around with the ISO setting to get whatever image you want or as much exposure, as you want, if the ISO setting is too high.
33:43
If the camera will CAP capture a lot of light and maybe wash out some of the details and if your ISO setting is too low, it won’t capture enough light and then you know the moon, is very dark.
33:56
The the challenging part of photographing a lunar eclipse is if you’re out there at the very start the moon, is going to be very bright and progressively get dimmer and dimmer until you know it’s at its most eclipse point.
34:10
And then start to brighten again so you will have to be somewhat dynamic on your settings you’re going to have to.
34:18
Probably at the very start, have a low ISO setting and then you know, keep bumping it up.
34:25
And, and the challenge here is, if you want to capture like when it’s in partial eclipse are moving towards that you know total eclipse are not quite total but you know the 97%.
34:39
you’re going to overexpose the bright part of the moon, if you want to get some of the color on the dark part of the moon, or the part that’s in eclipse so it becomes a little bit of a challenge that way.
34:50
Some people that are really good at processing photographs will take two photos you know one where the dark side is exposed properly and then one where the brighter side is.
35:01
exposed properly and then stack the two images, for you know sort of a the best of both worlds, but anyway that’s some real kind of high level guidance they’re.
35:13
really just get out there and play around with your camera is the most is probably the best advice I could give and there’s certainly some advice on the Internet just if you Google or do an Internet search for photographing the moon there’ll be lots of more detailed hands out there.
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Chris Beckett
35:31
yeah that that’s really great advice i’m not a photographer so i’m really glad that you’re able to chime in and give us this this advice.
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Shane Ludtke
35:38
yeah no problem.
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Chris Beckett
35:39
And I really love the photo that you shared because I really think that the photo that you share that you’ve put out on our actual astronomy Twitter feed is.
35:47
Is is going to be, I really would bet that this is what we’re going to see, I think that that one is is very, very close to the one that we’re going to see.
35:56
Early on Friday morning speaking of the time, the eclipse is going to take place i’m going to give these Eastern time so yesterday Eastern standard time.
36:07
it’s set to begin at 2:19am Eastern standard time and that’s going to be on November 19 so if you’re staying or if you’re staying up you’re going to stay up late on the 18th because this is extremely early Friday morning is so that’s key don’t wait for late on on the 19th.
36:27
Early on, on the following day, so you’re going to miss it, but you want to be out early early early on November 19 so set your alarm for like.
36:34
Maybe 2am and go, but to 19 it’s going to start to 930 Eastern and you’re only just going to start to see it just after that.
36:45
And it’s a very slow moving event so it’s not like you blink you miss it’s not like a meteor.
36:51
If it’s clear at all, even from a city, you will see it, the maximum is at 4am Eastern standard time Okay, and I can give those and then it’s going to end at 547 Eastern standard time so to 19 Eastern standard time is a.
37:09
Pacific time though On the 18th and then that’s going to be maximum clips at 1am pst and then it’s going to end at 247 pst so i’ve kind of.
37:23
Given that, given that range there, hopefully with that people can figure people can figure it out for their location.
37:31
If it’s cloudy or, if you want to see the time for your location, it will get picked up when you browse to it, or you can put it in you can go to www date and time date.com so time and date calm and I put a link to their website and they’re going to have a live YouTube.
37:55
Feed as well, of of the event so maybe you don’t want to go outside when it’s minus 20 like it is going to be here.
38:00
And you can you can just watch it from the comfort of your home live broadcasts off and have some pretty interesting commentators, we will be going to to watch it here so shane with them i’m not sure if you have anything left to add on our exciting lunar eclipse this week.
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Shane Ludtke
38:18
The only thing would be if anybody takes some photographs.
38:21
Oh yeah we would love it if you just tag us like if you tweet them out.
38:26
tweet or tag us at actual astronomy just so that we can see them or email them to us, we would love to see them there too, and we are actual astronomy at gmail COM.
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Chris Beckett
38:36
Great well thanks so much again, and thanks everybody for listening.
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