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(meteorobs) Eclipse
Hi all
We are only a couple of miles from the coast and it was obvious it was going
to be foggy so my friend, Mike and I decided to drive 140 miles to a site
north of Mojave which gave us (almost) excellent viewing. I say (almost)
because there was a thin layer of cloud just above the distant horizon but
it interfered only minimally. When the moon rose it was already about 10 -
15% eclipsed, but it made a spectacular sight.
I took my video camera along and added a doubler to the lens. This gave me
an effective focal length of 122 mm at f1.9. At full zoom the moon filled
on quarter the width of the TV screen. I gave it maximum exposure which
made the eclipsed portion appear about the same brightness as it did
visually. I zoomed back a little and picked up Saturn two degrees away.
Later on I swung round to record Jupiter and could see the four satellites
as little dashes each side. When I walked up to the TV set I could see the
brighter stars of the teapot as a stationary dot bathed in the ever
shifting background noise.
During the full eclipse we took the opportunity to do some binnocular
observing and I got my best siting yet of Hale-Bopp at magnitude 5.5. The
Andromeda Galaxy looked very spectacular. I would rate the viewing as as
good as I have ever seen it at this site.
We stayed until the eclipse was complete leaving the moon to wash the sky
out to about limiting magnitude 2.
Best wishes
Ron Rennie