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Re: (meteorobs) RE: SW Florida eclipse and meteors



I just wanted to throw in my two cents worth on the
Was it dark or was it bright? discussion of the recent
Lunar Eclipse.  I am in complete agreement with Norm
on the appearance of the fully eclipsed moon: It was
much darker and more muted then the "hype" led us to
believe, in my opinion. From Sicily, the elevation of
the moon at mid-eclipse was, of course, much lower
then it was for observers in the states (less then 30
degrees above the western horizon at 0500 local).  It
appeared very dark, very dull, virtually no color save
hints of faint reddish-orange near the edges and was
MUCH darker then a very similar eclipse for us here in
early 1997. A cold front had just passed over leaving
us with very clear, dry air during the eclipse. 
Compared to many eclipses I've seen during the 1974 to
2000 timeframe, this one surely rates as the least
impressive visually I've ever seen.  Paolo in Sicily 

--- nmcleod@peganet.com wrote:
> January has been largely clear from SW Florida with
> a few foggy late nights.
> Eclipse day had a late afternoon cold front blow by
> rapidly with a nice rain
> shower near sunset -- always good to get rain this
> time of year to retard
> fires for a day.  The sky cleared by dark, and Joan
> and I went out to the
> Lehigh Acres observing site to start watching at 10
> PM.  It wasn't all that
> bad for comfort, breezy with temp in the high 50'sF.
>  I placed the car to
> block some wind, and we had plenty of blankets.  I
> even skipped the upper
> part of thermal underwear.
> 
> I am very suprised to read about the impressions of
> a bright eclipse from
> elsewhere.  Out of ten major lunars I have seen
> since 1956, just those with
> the eclipse fully visible from here, I found this
> latest one to have been
> the second-darkest of my life.  The colors were the
> most muted ever --
> exceedingly dull.  No hint of brick red this time,
> and Joan was just a touch
> disappointed also, comparing with 1994's gorgeous
> orange-red coloring.  The
> deepest shadow had a very dark brown coloring with
> most of the rest a pale
> orange-yellow.  My Danjon rating at mid-eclipse is
> just 1.2 ; near the edges
> of totality I give it 1.5.  Quite a contrast with
> the series of Danjon 3's I
> gave eclipses from 1960, 1968, 1971, and 1975.  Got
> tired of the bright
> ones, was wanting to see a dark one for a change. 
> FInally got one in 1982,
> Danjon 1.0.
> 
> This eclipse set an altitude record with me.  At the
> end of totality the
> moon was 85 degrees up.  I observe meteors with the
> pillow doubled up to be
> watching at elevation 70o, and I should have
> undoubled it after midnight.  I
> was straining my neck against the pillow some to
> follow the moon.
> 
> We went naked-eye only, to take in the full-sky
> changes and just enjoy the
> show.  But I observed for meteors as well. The sky
> began at LM4.0 ; during
> totality it improved to LM7.3.  From 1000 PM EST to
> totality at 1105 PM I
> saw 2 meteors.  First a very nice yellow  0m Delta
> Cancrid, then a  3m.  Up
> to 1126 just one more  3m.  The regular hour, to
> 1226 AM, had 3 meteors :
> 4m,4m,5m.  The last was only 10 degrees from the
> moon.  Totality ended at
> 1222, so LM7.3 ended at 1226.  Hanging on to 100 AM
> I saw 2 more meteors :
> another Delta Cancrid at 3m, and a blue 0m.  We quit
> at 100 AM and skipped
> the anticlimactic late stages of the eclipse.  I am
> discarding the meteor
> time from my official records  during the partial
> phases due to the rapidly
> changing sky conditions.  Joan saw all but two of my
> meteors, and she saw
> one with the only train of the night that I missed.
> 
> Norman
> Norman W. McLeod III
> Staff Advisor
> American Meteor Society
> 
> Fort Myers, Florida
> nmcleod@peganet.com
> 
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