Current Solar X-rays: Current Geomagnetic Field: |
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Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse, November 18/19, 2021: I remember departing my Thursday Moravian class in the rain at 9:30 p.m., not expecting to witness this near-total lunar eclipse. Two hours later, the sky transformed, becoming broken with scudding cumulus clouds that rapidly decreased to an almost clear sky. This allowed me to observe and capture the eclipse through a 5-inch refractor. The night sky darkened, and the winds calmed, etching the reddened moon against a wintery backdrop of the Pleiades, Taurus, and Orion, a sight I shall always remember.
Total Lunar Eclipse, May 16, 2022: Peter Detterline and I chased this eclipse into western PA to obtain clearer skies. An elderly woman permitted us to observe the event near her home in the front of her barn. Although clouds rolled in and out that evening, there were long periods when the eclipsed moon was visible against a brilliant canopy of stars, which for me made this event very memorable. My images of totality, taken through a 4-inch refractor, showed more background stars than any other eclipse I had ever recorded.
Total Lunar Eclipse, November 8, 2022: This was the patriotic eclipse because the moon was still experiencing totality during dawn when the sky began to become blue against a reddened moon near to the horizon. Moravian students and I observed from Collier's Sky Deck starting about 3 a.m. well into dawn, recording the eclipse as the most colorful I have ever witnessed because of the brightening blue sky.
Total Solar Eclipse, April 20, 2023: Peter Detterline and I chased this hybrid eclipse, part annular, part total, to the North West Coast of Australia about 800 kilometers north of Perth. We rendezvoused with the moon's shadow on the Pacific Explorer under a saturated blue canopy. However, the wind was a different matter, causing the anchored ship to yaw back and forth. I imaged with a tripoded DSLR camera and 135mm lens and got unexpectedly good results. The most memorable moment was about 30 seconds before the diamond ring when the sky became brownish in hue, very surreal against the still brilliant orb of the sun's last vestiges of light. Totality lasted only 60 seconds, but I achieved my goal of capturing the ingress and egress diamond rings and more.
Annular Eclipse, October 14, 2023: Jesse Leayman and I met up with Peter Detterline and friends at the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah, to view this ringed eclipse and to help to refurbish the MDRS Robotic Observatory to which Moravian University has a 25 percent timeshare usage. My goal here was to capture Baily's beads at the start and end of annularity. Using the cesium clocks (atomic time) located near Fort Collins, Colorado and precise information generated at our observing location, the sun's light shining through the valleys between mountain peaks on the moon's limb was recorded successfully just before and after annularity. Jesse also created a beautiful video of the annular event using his 4.25-inch Astroscan 2001 reflector.
Total Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, Derby, Vermont: I don't ever remember a more stressful eclipse, but our group lucked out with the weather, which would have been overcast had we been just 50 miles to the west, our original destination. All aspects of the eclipse were imaged successfully through thin cirrus clouds. I also wanted to spend more time watching totality visually. I caught both diamond rings and probably spent about two minutes simply looking with the unaided eye and through binoculars which is perfectly safe during totality.
Eclipse-wise, the last 30 months have been a rush. Ad Astra!