October 2015

Dear Friend of Lookout Observatory,

The last full moon, September 27^th, occurred when the moon was very close to the point in its orbit where it is closest to the earth. This made it appear slightly larger than usual, and it has been dubbed a “super moon.” It so happened that at the same time the earth came between it and the sun, casting the earth’s shadow over it, thus creating a lunar eclipse. From the western part of the U.S. The eclipse began before moonrise, so the moon rose already partly eclipsed. The Lookout Observatory (sometime) Resident Astronomer was on vacation at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona at the time, so the attached photos were taken from the White House Overlook, looking across the Canyon. The first photo was taken at dusk as the moon was first rising. The trees below it are about 2 miles away. The second photo was taken about an hour later, after the moon was totally inside the earth’s shadow and relatively high in the sky. Lunar eclipses, unlike solar eclipses, have a very fuzzy, indistinct edge to them because the earth’s atmosphere scatters the sunlight and the shadow isn’t sharp. This eclipse was darker and redder than most. The color and brightness depends largely on the amount of pollution in the earth’s atmosphere. If you missed this eclipse, I’m afraid the next lunar eclipse won’t occur until 2018. Nevertheless,

Keep looking up,

Carter

Technical details: Partial eclipse photo, cropped – 200mm lens, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 800, 7:14 PM MDT. Total eclipse photo, cropped – 200mm lens, f/5.6, 1/2s, ISO 1600, 8:16 PM MDT.