Jan 2019 Lunar Eclipse
Total “Blood Moon” Lunar Eclipse Party Jan 20-21, 2019
What: Star party to watch total “Blood Moon” lunar eclipse
Who: BAS and BYA members only and invited guests—not a public party
Where: Our Savior Lutheran Church, 300 NE Madison Blvd, Bartlesville OK 74006
When: Jan. 20 8:00 p.m. - Jan. 21 2:00 a.m. (This was timed to be an hour and a half before the eclipse started and an hour after the eclipse ended.)
Who coordinated: Rick Buck made the decision to have a star party for this eclipse; this was reviewed at the December board meeting where it was decided that this would be a members-only party (a work day for many the next day as the event would run late; also, when using the church, it would be a members-only party). Bob Young set up free use of the church events room, which has a kitchen attached, use of restrooms, and the church’s outside yard area to the east. Rick Buck brought makings for hot cocoa and coffee, graham crackers, and hand warmers; and Derek did the publicity.
Publicity used: Derek sent email to BAS members Jan. 4 and Jan. 19. It was also discussed at the January 7 BAS meeting.
Number of people who attended: 13: 11 BAS members and 2 BYA members, no guests
Number telescopes used: 3, with astrophotography. A number of people brought hand-held binoculars.
Other materials brought: Rick Buck brought at least 10 dozen hot drink cups, several large boxes of Swiss Miss cocoa mix, coffee, sugar and creamer, a large metal canister to hold the hot water for making the cocoa, and a large, family-size box of graham crackers. He also brought paper napkins and small paper plates for the graham crackers. I don’t think any paper plates were used but we did enjoy the graham crackers! (We didn’t eat the whole box.)
Rick also brought hand warmers!
Others brought hot tea in their own hot drink mugs.
Denise brought an eclipse fact sheet printed from StarWalk 2 which helped in timing stages of the eclipse.
People also brought lawn chairs.
Materials of location site used: We used the church’s coffee maker, round tables and chairs.
BAS expenditures: None, although Craig suggested to Rick Buck that he submit his expenses to the Club for reimbursement. Use of the church was free—Craig has suggested that we make a donation to the church to thank them for letting us use it.
What we observed: Total “blood moon” lunar eclipse, start to finish. At least one of our group (John Blaesi) saw a meteoroid hit the Moon during totality. (This was observed on multiple continents!) John Grismore got an email about the meteoroid hit, sent it to the Club, and John Blaesi said that he saw it! As totality ended, we observed an atmospheric-optical effect “corona” on the left side of the moon (the side that was coming out of shadow). John Blaesi photographed this corona. We also observed a beautiful, large ring around the moon as totality was ending, and afterward.
Comments: Very clear weather for watching this eclipse; we had front-row seats for a spectacular eclipse start to finish, with totality just over an hour! There were some high cirrus clouds around but fortunately, these didn’t interfere with eclipse viewing. (They probably contributed to seeing the lunar “corona”.) Since it was cold, the hot cocoa, hot coffee and hand warmers were much appreciated!!
We started wrapping up shortly after totality ended; the last to leave left the church around 1:05 am; by that time, the eclipse was over.
We had expected more people to come. (We didn’t have a formal sign-up sheet.) Some had to work the next day (even though it was MLK Day) which could have been a factor. It might have helped if we had put in the advertising that this was going to be the last total lunar eclipse viewable here until May 2021—Denise didn’t realize this until doing eclipse prep the day of the event! Also, snow had been forecast for the weekend a few days out; perhaps some decided to make other plans for the weekend based on this, even though we ended up not getting any snow.
More about the meteoroid: John Grismore told us that “During the lunar eclipse on Sunday, a very brief flash, caused by the impact of a meteor on the Moon’s surface, was observed and recorded. For those of you who took photographs during the eclipse, I encourage you to review your photos to see if you might have captured the flash. The probabilities are low, but definitely worth the time to review photos taken near the time of impact (4:41:38 UT = 10:41:38 CST). Below I’ve attached the contents of an email posted on the International Occultation Timing Association Forum, with additional details, and a brief YouTube video showing the flash. If anyone captured the flash, we should report it.“
“Greetings to all-
We have a confirmed lunar meteoroid impact that occurred during the total lunar eclipse. The initially reported time was 4:41:43 UT on 21 January by an individual watching with binoculars: he saw the flash then went inside to gauge the time. MIDAS survey recorded the flash at 4:41:38UT, I attribute the five second delay due to reaction time-delay of noting the time of the event due to the element of surprise, much like my own situation where I reported an event four seconds off of the recorded time of the event.
With so many people watching the eclipse I am curious as to how many actually saw the event. Could be an interesting "experiment" related to casual observations of LTP. Please let us know if you saw anything unusual, either this impact or any other that you may have witnessed.
Check out the brief video announcing this observation here: “
And from spaceweather.com:
A METEOROID HITS THE MOON DURING LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Jan. 21st at 04:41:43 UT, a meteoroid slammed into the Moon. We know this because so many people witnessed the explosion. It happened during a total eclipse of the Moon, visible from five continents. Dr. Fritz Helmut Hemmerich photographed the eclipse from the Canary Islands of Spain and captured the fireball.
Dozens of reliable images and videos of the impact have surfaced in the days since the eclipse. Analyzing one sharp image taken by Christian Fröschlin of the Netherlands, geologist Justin Cowart has estimated the selenographic coordinates of the impact site: 29.47S, 67.77W +/- 4km. This puts it just to the west of the lunar crater Lagrange H. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may be able to use such coordinates to target its cameras and photograph the crater.
More about the corona: From this page about another lunar eclipse https://www.space.com/42318-lunar-eclipse-cloudy-halo-video.html :
According to physicist Les Cowley of the website Atmospheric Optics, lunar coronas "are seen when the clouds are thin enough that each single corona light ray reaching the eye is scattered or diffracted by only one droplet" of moisture in the atmosphere. "Of course, the whole corona is made by a great many droplets individually scattering the moonlight," Cowley wrote. "Any small particle can make a corona. Ice crystals in high clouds form them. Even wind-drifting pollen grains make them."
And on this page--
It says:
In meteorology, a corona (plural coronae) is an optical phenomenon produced by the diffraction of sunlight or moonlight (or, occasionally, bright starlight or planet light) by individual small water droplets and sometimes tiny ice crystals of a cloud or on a foggy glass surface.
and:
Lunar coronae are much more familiar than those around the sun. They are seen when the clouds are thin enough that each single corona light ray reaching the eye is scattered or diffracted by only one droplet. Of course, the whole corona is made by a great many droplets scattering the moonlight.