Eclipse warning

[bellinghman]

There will be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night. It's not the most convenient time for UK residents, being between 3 and 4 am GMT.

NASA page

Comments

[liasbluestone.livejournal.com]

They're also predicting around 100% cloud cover, around here at least.
Currently wondering if it's worth waking ourselves up to check.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Something astronomical? It'll be cloudy/raining/foggy/snowing then.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, that seems to go with the territory in this country.

(And not just here - we flew to Stuttgart for the solar eclipse, and got rained on for its entirety.)

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

I'll to check the forecast, and if there's any chance of seeing it I'll go to bed early and get up for this, along with #2 who is interested in astronomy (well, he's an 8-year old boy who got a cheap telescope from his grandfather for Christmas).

Now I've just got to figure out what exposure time I'll need for this, as I expect it'll be too dark to have it on automatic (although AC's Nikon F3 house does go quite far up, IIRC), and find the 210mm lens.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly easy to overexpose if you try to use any meter, as the moon doesn't fill enough of its sensor coverage. Look it up on t'web instead.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suspected as much. This site seems to know what they're talking about, and unlike the first few I browsed to it doesn't expect you to hook the camera up to a telescope, so I'm making a note of it here.

[liasbluestone.livejournal.com]

knowitall_teen got a couple of nice ones of the eclipse last August. I'll ping her to check the exposure on those.

[knowitall-teen.livejournal.com]

I used a 2.5 second exposure last time and got some good ones.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the British weather prevented any photos this time, but thanks anyway.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

We looked out at bedtime, noted the forecast, and decided it was going to be very unlikly to magically clear any time useful.

A shame, given the weather over the previous week or so.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

It's not the most convenient time for UK residents, being between 3 and 4 am GMT.

It does of course HAVE to be at night, by definition.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Yes, but there's a difference between 3-4 am and what the Alaskans will have: 6-7 pm.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for the heads up. Though given the weather I'll probably only bother looking if I have insomnia ;)