PHOTOS AND REPORT OF TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE JUNE 2011
I was expecting for better sky to watch the Total Lunar Eclipse on June 15-16. The whole day of June 13th was cloudy and the same condition lasted until June 14th evening but after sunrise the sky became almost clear leaving a hope in me to watch the Lunar Eclipse successfully! As I expected the whole day of June 15th passed with broken cloudy sky conditions so was sure that we are not going to miss the eclipse. I called Mr. Narendra Gor and we decided to arrange the event on his home’s terrace. We also informed the other club members. I reached at the venue with Amit Hedau and Gaurav Bhatt at around 10:30pm. As equipments, we had my 25x100 Binoculars, my Panasonic DMC FS15 Digital Camera, Mr. Narendra Gor’s 6-inch Sky Watchers Newtonian and his Nikon Coolpix Digital Camera. The moon entered the Penumbra at 10:57pm. We began to watch it through my Binocs. All realized that the eclipse has begun when the moon entered the Umbra (at 11:52pm local time). As time went on more and more people arrived.
At 12:30am we had more than 50 peoples in our place. The moon appeared copper colored and was showed through telescope and Binoculars. As the eclipse was approaching maximum, the number of visible stars was increasing. During that time we did following observations.
1. * Reappearance of 51 Ophiuchi star at 12:52am.
2. *Observation and explanation of constellations, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius and Scorpius.
3. *Explanation of method of finding Polaris.
4. *Explanation of constellations Cygnus, Aquila and Lyra as per Indian Mythology.
We had many phone calls questioning about facts and superstitions related with Eclipse! During that time more clouds appear in the sky and soon the whole sky filled with clouds. At 1:23am we saw a gap in the clouds and glimpsed the total eclipsed moon and photographed it!
Overall this was a fantastic event for us just before the beginning of monsoon! Now we can better rest for the four months of monsoon! Club members, Amit Hedau, Abhi Goswami, Gaurav Bhatt, Gunjan Doshi, Mayur Bagga and Kashyap Thakker were helping hands. Hardik Bhatiya and Bhumit Gadhvi were new members who also enjoyed the event!
Comments