Get ready for the best and brightest asteroid occultation ever predicted for North America. Late on the night of March 19–20, the faint asteroid 163 Erigone (eh-RIG-uh-nee) will briefly eclipse the bright naked-eye star Regulus for more than 20 million people in the New York metropolitan area and parts of Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, upstate New York, and Ontario. The star will wink out of sight for up to 14 seconds around 2:06 a.m. EDT on the morning of the 20th for New Yorkers, and a minute or two later farther north.

...

In fact, this is the first time in history that an occultation of such a bright star by an asteroid has been predicted to cross such a heavily populated area.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/commu...249327421.html

Weather report is predicting clear skies in NY Thursday night too. Mostly cloudy during day on Thursday, so it looks like it will clear in time for this event.

I had the wrong day for the weather. It's 2:06 AM Thursday, and Wednesday night is supposed to be overcast and raining in NYC. No good in Kingston Ontario either.

So this was a complete bust. Nobody or virtually nobody saw it due to clouds that covered the entire Northeast in the occultation path.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/commu...252821271.html

Hope for better weather on the night of April 14-15 for the total lunar eclipse visible from North America.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/commu...252931091.html

I hate it when good stars get caught up in the occult.

Bruce,

God is messing with you. If the lunar eclipse is a bust you know He is laughing at you and making your life just that much more miserable and frustrating - that's how He justifies His existence.

There will actually be 4 in 2014-2015. For the upcoming one on April 14-15 observers all over North America will see all phases, weather permitting, and it's total. Another total on October 8 will be seen best on the West coast.

http://www.astronomy.com/observing/s...lipse-april-15



From above link:

If you’re dreading the deadline for filing your taxes in the U.S., the sky will provide a distraction in the early morning hours of April 15. That’s when we’ll experience the first total lunar eclipse in 28 months.

Observers throughout North and South America will have the prime views of this eclipse. Those in the western Pacific will miss the first half of the eclipse because it occurs before the Moon rises. Likewise, most of Europe and Africa will experience moonset just as the eclipse begins.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon line up. During such times, the Moon passes through Earth’s shadow, and where it passes determines the type of eclipse we’ll see.

Our planet’s shadow has two parts: a darker inner section called the umbra and a lighter outer region called the penumbra. When the Moon passes through only the penumbra, we experience a penumbral eclipse. When only some of it passes through the umbra, we see a partial eclipse. Sometimes, however, all of the Moon passes through the umbra, creating a total lunar eclipse. That’s what’s happening on the 15th.


The event starts at 12:54 a.m. EDT as the Moon enters the penumbra of Earth’s shadow. Most observers won’t even notice any change in our satellite’s appearance for at least a half-hour after this time.

Things begin to heat up at 1:58 a.m. EDT. That’s when the Moon first hits Earth’s umbral shadow and the partial phase begins. For more than an hour you’ll see the dark part grow until totality begins at 3:07 a.m. EDT.

Totality lasts 78 minutes, until 4:25 a.m. EDT. The partial phase is over at 5:33 a.m. EDT, and the penumbral phase — and this eclipse — ends at 6:38 a.m. EDT.

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This illustration shows the main events that will occur during the total lunar eclipse April 15. In addition to the times listed on the diagram, mid-eclipse occurs at 3:46 A.M. EDT. Note that in some time zones, events may occur before midnight, so if you live in one of those, the date will be April 14.

May 24 there could be a gigantic meteor shower with as many as 1000 meteors per hour or more under ideal conditions. We will be crossing into every trail of dust left by a particular comet between 1803 and 1926. They aren't sure how big it will be, but 3 different models predict it could be spectacular. North America will be perfect for it, and there will only be a sliver of a moon.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/commu...173316061.html

Lunar eclipses suck. "Oh look, the moon looks slightly beige." Kind of cool if you don't have your sights set too high.

I've watched one total solar eclipse. I was in grade school. They gave us pieces of plastic like welding helmets have to make it so we couldn't see anything at all.

I can say that I am consistently the person who enjoys meteor showers more than anyone I know. I've dragged countless people out to the country to stare up at the sky.

Maybe you only saw a penumbral eclipse or a partial. Even when it's total, you don't always see a total from certain areas if the moon isn't up at that point. How the moon looks depends on the atmospheric conditions on earth. There's always some light due to refraction. You can see the shadow creeping across over time.




What I think is impressive is earthshine. You don't need an eclipse for that. It happens when the moon is a crescent, but reflected light from the earth partially illuminates the rest of the moon. To me that's as impressive as an eclipse:




You can just project the sun onto a white surface with binoculars and watch it that way.

Lunar eclipse properly photographed is one of the greatest things in the world in terms of colors. You can practically see the earth's atmosphere in it (a collections of light from sunsets and sunrises across the planet at that moment projected on the moon).

Can you imagine picking up a great vista point like a landmark bridge or a city skyline and the moon with the earth shine or a solar eclipse that takes place near sunset (or sunrise) (the most unreal lucky time it can happen where you can safely even use zoom (if you at least wear dark glasses yourself to not risk it that much just to be safe) and capture an amazing image.

Probably once in your life you get such a chance to realize it that the timing and location and weather cooperate for the ultimate experience.


Just always protect your eyes and dont do stupid things. Think always first lol.


I wish i had an easy way to put some slides to jpg of my own eclipse pictures. Any service you guys have used that was good to do such conversions? I used to be very active photographer in my early 20s until just before the transition to higher quality digital age photography past 10 years. I still consider to restart the hobby but i wanted to be able to use the top of the line definition after all the progress was made to surpass the best slide film quality (eg Fuji Velvia 50 is like 16 Mpixel equivalent) without using a super expensive equipment (less than 1k). We have reached that point it seems. So you guys have a digital SLR camera you suggest? Some Nikon over 16 Mp? (i wonder if i can use my old Nikon N90 lenses or its no use).

And dont get me started with long exposure starlight games in the desert hehe (or some remote island or a mountain far from cities but with great trees).

Seriously i am mad enough one of these days to just jump in the car, drive for 2 days to Utah Arches National park and find a way to stay in the park (illegal likely) all night and take a picture of the amazing arches illuminated only by starlight with the stars above forming arcs. Or even got to Yosemite and during snow covered periods do the same thing with the mountains in the background, the Yosemite river flowing and the stars above, no moon no lights, just magical for 2-3 hours exposure. Can you picture it? Eventually all the details are illuminated by the stars and the picture although is dark when you look with your eyes, eventually is very colorful.

http://www.benhallissy.com/2013/07/0...t-photography/
(i am not the only mad guy out there)



(this guy claims; "Ultimately, you’re aiming for your environment to be illuminated by the stars themselves – yes it’s possible! However, this entirely depends on the length of your exposure. The image above is the result of an 80 minute exposure taken under a new moon – you can see that the foreground is exposed nicely and the star trails are outstanding") (i wonder if the ancients had noticed this during night say looking at stars from fixed positions in the ground using trees or hills etc as fixed reference noticing the arcs - i mean the sequence of different positions of same star during night vs the background, by painting the sky roughly and potentially could recognize the earth is rotating and even find the axis - securing that way a rejection of earth centric universe, making it easy to then recognize what is going on with sun and moon. You see the existence of a fixed star in the sky is very lethal for earth centric ideas right away, dont you think, nothing symmetric about the existence of such axis in terms of earth being a special center.)

I remember the first time away from city lights. I still like it.

Remember to check out the total lunar eclipse tonight in North America. Times posted earlier. Clear skies are predicted for LA, but elsewhere there may be problems with clouds.

LA - clear
LV - clear to partly cloudy
SF - partly cloudy
Chicago - snow tapering off, clear tomorrow, partly cloudy?
NYC - considerable cloudiness and possible rain

Conditions here are somewhat cloudy at the moment a few hours before the event. You can see the moon but its fuzzy and no craters etc are visible due to what i cant exactly call strong clouds but rather part of a hazy/humid atmosphere night.

You should move somewhere more suitable for human life. NorCal sucks. The only reason I need a roof over my his to keep the moon out of my eyes.

I have to wear spf 20 to go out during a full moon here.

(it is, so far, pretty cool watching a quadrant of the moon get darker. It is a bit better than what I remember from seeing it as a child.)

I see it just fine. About half the moon is covered now. It's much better in binocululars than with the naked eye. I can see the other half slightly illuminated by the refracted light. It's much more impressive than that earthshine picture I posted earlier. It had been overcast all day, but the clouds cleared just in time for the event.

That bright reddish object to the right of the moon is mars of course. It's closer than it has been for 6 years. The star right next to it is Spica.

Oh man, that's awesome. Just a sliver fully illuminated now, and I can see the rest even with the naked eye now. But in binoculars it's faint orange. Hauling the scope out now.

It is very very awesome. I owe you one for making me walk outside.

I just showed a small neighbor boy Mars.

Turned out to be very enjoyable (and not done yet)...

I thank you, Bruce.

Just had totality. I've got some crude afocal pics through scope. Are you looking with binoculars?

Using both eyes unaided. I do have a cheap Celestron, but it was as useless as trying to look at Carmen Electra through a straw.

I don't really do pics. If something is worth burning into my mind, it will be burned thereupon.

Oh that's too bad, the view through binoculars is way way better. I'll try to get some pics at 30x as it comes out.

Its nicely visible here too from the start of it, it cleared, although its not excellent conditions, its still possible to see the red colors. Its ending now of course.

It helps to have a vantage point or a tripod when using full zoom otherwise the shaking spoils the clarity.