Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Observing the Total Lunar Eclipse September 27, 2015

Last Sunday evening there were a bunch of factors that came together when I viewed the total lunar eclipse from the Mayo High School parking lot with the Rochester Astronomy Club. This was a rather special lunar eclipse in that the moon was unusually close to the earth causing it to appear both larger and brighter this combination only happens every 30 years. It was a clear and warm evening plus I was already in Rochester Minnesota so when I heard the astronomy club was hosting a public viewing I couldn’t pass up the chance to look through some really nice telescopes operated by knowledgeable people.



Pictures from Cosmos TV Event











I had first learned of the Rochester Astronomy Club when I had shared a table with Everything Hobby of Rochester with some of my project material from my website at an event for the Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey TV program hosted by Fox 47 TV. That evening it was not good for outdoor viewing but the astronomy club had an impressive display of telescopes and other related materials.









The next factor in my interest in astronomy was when I received a DVD from Astronomy Magazine, after I watched the DVD it seemed really interesting and I purchased a bunch of their DVD’s after this. More recently I had purchased a small telescope and have been learning how to use it.







For the lunar eclipse viewing there was a really a good number of people of all ages present and members of the Rochester Astronomy Club were very helpful in helping the public view the eclipse through their telescopes. Several people including myself were trying to take pictures with a smartphone focused through a telescope lens, this was not easy but one of the members took a really impressive picture for me using my phone.


I had written previously an article about the “Blood Moon” and why the moon had the red color during the eclipse.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com

Related Links

Rochester Astronomy Club

Blood Moon Basics

Everything Hobby

Fox 47 TV

Astronomy Magazine







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