I started intently watching the sky in
August 2007, and truly took up the hobby of astronomy in July 2008, when I
bought my 6" Dobsonian. There had been total lunar eclipses in October
2004, and March 2007, and I had seen parts of those, but not through knowledgeable
eyes. Since familiarizing myself with the sky, and the science and history of
astronomy, there have been four lunar eclipses that totality occurred with the
Moon over Northwest Indiana. In February 2008, heavy lake effect snow over
Valparaiso prevented me from observing any of the eclipse. That storm was a
narrow lake effect band, however, and other parts of the region had clear
skies, according to radio reports the next day. Then in December 2010, perhaps
the finest lunar eclipse of my lifetime was going to occur, on the winter
solstice, and with totality while the Moon was rather high. Again, it snowed. I
had planned to observe with Chicago Astronomers at Adler Planetarium, but the
snow made driving conditions dangerous, so I stayed home. Not quite a year
later, there was another December total lunar eclipse, and while skies were
clear at Conway Observatory in Lowell, Indiana, the eclipse started shortly
before Moonset, and I could only observe the beginning of the partial phase.
That was the last total lunar eclipse
until April 15, 2014, and again, totality would be visible from Northwest
Indiana. It should have been a great eclipse to observe. On the 14th, I
frequently checked the forecast, and watched satellite images of a large system
casting cloud cover over Illinois and Indiana. The system appeared to be moving
through, and I was sure would pass before the eclipse began. After midnight, a
check of weather websites led me to look out the window, and see bright,
glorious moonlight. It was a cold night for mid-April, so I bundled up, went
outside, and...
SNOW!!! My friend Ryan, a meteorology
student at Valparaiso University had messaged me around that time that a lake
effect snow band had pop up unexpectedly, and was dropping snow over much of
the region. I was crushed. After waiting so many years for a total lunar
eclipse, and being snowed out for February and December eclipses, I really
thought snow wouldn't be a problem in the middle of April, but the winter of
2014 was possibly the worst of my life, with far too much snow, too often, and
far too many days of dangerously cold temperatures. And of course, another
snowstorm in April. Would I ever observe a total lunar eclipse without snow?!?
Fortunately, the wait for the next
total eclipse was less than six months. The entire April eclipse would have
been seen from Northwest Indiana. While totality for the October 8 eclipse was
entirely visible in the region, the Moon would set with most of Luna covered by
the Earth's shadow.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/total-lunar-eclipse-09262014/
Although the Moon wouldn't start to
pass through Earth's shadow until the early morning of Wednesday, October 8,
for me the experience began the evening before. I was driving to my Tuesday
night bowling league, when I noticed Luna above the horizon before I made a left
hand turn to the west. The sky was clear, the Sun was about to set, and even the
worst forecasts I'd seen had been rather favorable. I stopped at the park
across from the bowling alley, ran up the hill, and captured both the Moon
rising and the Sun setting. I had a feeling I was finally going to observe a
total lunar eclipse before I saw the Sun again.
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| Sun setting Tuesday, October 7, from Portage, Indiana. |
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| Moon rising Tuesday, October 7, over Portage, Indiana. |
Panorama of sunset and moonrise, Tuesday, October 7.
As a third shifter, I usually go to
work after I finish bowling, but not that night. Instead, I drove to
Conway Observatory. I wouldn't need its rather dark sky to observe the eclipse,
but I did want to take advantage of its wide open western horizon, since the
eclipse would be ongoing at moonset. Before setting up my telescope, I sat in
the heated control room, going over predicted times and graphs in magazines and
online. My chance was finally here, and I wanted to be prepared for what I was
about to observe. Then I unloaded my equipment, and took images of the Moon
while I waited.
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| Pre-eclipse image of 2014's brightest full Moon. |
My telescope was set up not far from
the observatory's basement door, and I left a notebook inside, so that I could
take little warm up breaks during the night, and record as many moments as
possible. The night was chilly, getting down to around 40° F, but with breezy
conditions most of the night, it felt colder. I was bundled up, but had forgot
to bring gloves, which I would later regret.
Although Calumet Astronomical Society
members have access to Conway Observatory any time, it is located on county
park property. I didn't arrive until close to midnight, but there was nobody
there, and I was kind of surprised. Usually a full Moon, or publicized
astronomical events bring gawkers at all hours of the night. Except for howls
from coyotes a couple times during the night, everything was quiet at the
observatory. Almost too quiet, with no cars driving past, and even the air
traffic seemed to be lighter than usual. I hadn't planned to experience my
first eclipse alone, but now that the moment had almost come, it was fine by
me.
I was working two jobs through the
summer and into the fall, and had quite a few days that I was awake for 30
hours or more. This was another long day for me. By the time I was home and
climbing in bed, I'd been up for more than 35 hours. The October issue of Sky & Telescope had speculated that
the penumbra, Earth's outer shadow, might be visible on the Moon at 3:45 AM
CDST. Lacking sleep, I set an alarm on my phone for 3:50, sat down in my chair
next to the telescope, and took a ten minute nap.
When I woke up, I immediately sensed
that the sky was darker. Earlier, the brightest full Moon of the year cast
brilliant light down on the observatory grounds, and the empty farmland
surrounding it. I could almost feel that the eclipse was about to begin. When
imaging the full disk of the Moon through my Dob my Samsung cell phone, I
usually need to use a neutral density filter and turn down the exposure
settings to keep the moonlight from overwhelming the camera. Although still
bright, and no shadow yet evident on the lunar surface, my camera phone could
tell the difference, as the neutral density filter was unnecessary when I took
images at 3:53. Just two minutes later I thought the Ocean of Storms on the
celestial eastern lunar rim looked darker, and with better contrast than it had
earlier. Of course, this would be where Luna was entering Earth's shadow.
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| Luna entering the penumbral phase. Unlike most of my lunar images, this was taken without a neutral density filter. |
By 4:09 AM CDST, it was evident
telescopically that the partial eclipse phase had begun, and by 4:11, it was
definitely apparent by naked eye. I watched as the shadow reached Mare Humorum
at 4:20, and then the crater Copernicus at 4:36. All that time, the sky
continued to darken, as Luna received less sunlight to reflect back to me. By
5:00, I could still see my shadow cast by the Moon, but I could also faintly
see a hint of the winter Milky Way across the sky.
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| The lunar limb starts to darken as partial phase begins. |
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| View through the finder scope of my Dobsonian. |
I noticed the first hint of red hue on
the Moon at 5:10. A few minutes later I could just barely see my shadow on the
ground. The Moon was almost totally engulfed by our planet's shadow. As
totality set in, I noticed a star off the lunar limb, magnitude 5.7 HD4628. I
also found Uranus off the lunar limb in the other direction, at about the same
magnitude.
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| Looking to the western horizon in the distance. |
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| Of course, Jupiter was a nice treat in the east. |
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| When the Earth's shadow started creeping across the Moon, almost everything I knew about lunar imaging no longer applied. |
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| Nearing totality. |
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| Showing red tint. Totality was much darker than I expected. |
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| Magnitude 5.7 star HD 4628 near the lunar limb. I also saw Uranus around this time, though it was too far from the lunar disk for me to image together. |
Although the Moon became overall much
dimmer than I expected through totality, the northern limb never really went
dark. Also during totality, while turning to the east to see the morning
twilight starting to break at 5:47, I saw a brief, fast, long Draconid meteor
streak north to northeast, down toward that horizon. David Fuller had talked
about the Draconid meteor shower in his eclipse video, so I wasn't surprised to
see one.
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| Jupiter and morning twilight in the east. |
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| Clouds to the northeast. |
A friend also trying to observe the
eclipse from Chesterton reported that clouds had moved in, and sure enough, as
the eastern sky continued to brighten, I saw a band of clouds off in that
direction. I even watched as a cloud passed over eclipsed Luna at 6:13. I was
so excited that I'd finally seen a total lunar eclipse, that I didn't notice
when totality ended. Morning twilight was growing ever stronger, and Luna was
now low in the western sky.
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| Totality is over. Seeing conditions deteriorated as the Moon got lower, and dew was starting to become a problem. |
Sky
& Telescope writer Alan MacRobert had included
in his eclipse article an observing phenomenon that I'd never heard of:
selenelion. A true selenelion occurs when the totally eclipsed Moon and the Sun
are above the horizon together. Totality had ended well before sunrise, but I
still thought it would be cool if I could see the partially eclipsed Moon at
all after sunrise. It was a close call, and hard to photograph with my phone,
but I did indeed see Luna- still partially eclipsed- as the Sun peeked above
the horizon, and for a short time after. Then Luna disappeared in the hazy muck
near the horizon, and my first total lunar eclipse was over. Success!
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| Waiting to see if I could catch the partially eclipsed Moon and Sun above the horizon together. |
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| Sunrise before moonset! A partial selenelion! (Or whatever it would be called). |
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| Partially eclipsed Moon still above the horizon after sunrise. |
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| Panorama. |
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| Luna is now lost to the horizon haze. |
I shared a few of my images online
during the eclipse, and saw some from my friends. Now that the eclipse was
over, I went inside the observatory to warm up, and share some details and more
images with my friends via the internet. Plus, my hands were freezing. Since I
forgot my gloves, and didn't want to waste a moment of eclipse time, I stayed
outside as much as possible. Now that it was daylight, I could see three large
cracks across my new phone. I took it out of its case because it was easier to
get pictures telescopically, but my numb fingers had dropped the phone several
times. Oh well. It was worth it. It was worth being cold. It was worth cracking
my phone. It was worth missing work. It was worth going too long without sleep.
I'd finally observed a total lunar eclipse, and it was all that I'd hoped for.
For its rarity and coolness, the Transit of Venus will probably be my favorite
observation I'll ever make, but as an experience, I think this eclipse has the
Venus transit beat. Now, on to the total solar eclipse of 2017!
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| Time to go home. |
