The brief partial lunar eclipse on Ari 25, 2013 captured over Israel. Credit and copyright: Gadi Eidelheit.
The lunar eclipse on April 25 was described by astrophotographer Gadi Eidelheit as “the greatest, slightest eclipse I ever saw!” The brief and small eclipse saw just 1.47% of the lunar limb nicked by the dark umbra or shadow from the Earth. It was visible from eastern Europe and Africa across the Middle East eastward to southeast Asia and western Australia. Here are a few more shots, including a serendipitous shot of an airplane flying through the eclipse!
Airliner flies through partial eclipse! On April 25, 2013, around 10:10 PM local time, the partial Lunar eclipse was at its maximum. The Moon only traveled 1,3% into the central Earth shadow (umbra). The event was visible from Europe, Asia and Australia. Canon EOS 600D on 130 mm (f/7,1) triplet Apo-refractor settings: 1/200 exposure at ISO 100. Credit and copyright: Philip Corneille – FRAS (Belgium).The small, shallow eclipse on April 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Andrei Juravle.Partially eclipsed Moon rising over Brixton in the UK on April 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Owen Llewellyn.Eclipsed Moon on April 25, 2013 over the UK. Credit and copyright: Sculptor Lil on Flickr.The eclipsed Moon, with Saturn showing as a bright point of light on the left, as seen over Königswinter, Germany. Credit and copyright: Daniel Fischer.The mini lunar eclipse on April 25, 2013 as seen from Bruges, Belgium. Credit and copyright: Cochuyt Joeri.A ‘before’ and ‘during’ comparison picture of the partial lunar eclipse on the 25th of April 2013. The photo on the left (‘before’) was taken at about 20h00 CAT and the photo on the right (‘during’) was taken around 22h06 CAT. Credit and copyright: Hein Oosthuyzen, Johannesburg, South Africa.Partial Lunar Eclipse on April 25, 2013. Credit and copyright: Henna Khan.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
The very early partial phase of the 2010 December solstice total lunar eclipse. This week's shallow eclipse will appear similar at its maximum. (Photo by author)
Eclipse season is upon us this week with the first eclipse of 2013, a brief partial lunar eclipse.
The lunar eclipse on April 25, 2013 is a shallow one, meaning only a paltry 1.47% of the lunar limb will be immersed in the dark umbra or inner shadow of the Earth. Observers can expect to see only a dark diffuse edge of the inner shadow nick the the Moon as is grazes the umbra.
A partial lunar eclipse this shallow hasn’t occurred since May 3rd, 1958 (0.9%) and won’t be topped until September 28th, 2034 (1.4%). This is the second slightest partial lunar eclipse for this century.
Another term for this sort of alignment is known as a syzygy, a great triple-letter word score in Scrabble!
A video simulation of the eclipse:
The eclipse will be visible in its entirety from eastern Europe & Africa across the Middle East eastward to southeast Asia and western Australia. The eclipse will be visible at moonrise from South America to Western Europe and occurring at moonset for eastern Australia and the Far East. The partially eclipsed Moon will be directly overhead just off the northeastern coast of Madagascar. The eclipse will not be visible from North America.
Two eclipse seasons occur each year when the nodal points of the Moon’s orbit intersect the ecliptic while aligned with the position of the Sun and the Earth’s shadow. The Moon’s orbit is inclined 5.15° degrees with respect to the ecliptic, which traces out our own planet’s path around the Sun. If this intersection occurs near New or Full Moon, a solar or lunar eclipse occurs.
The visibility region of Thursday’s partial lunar eclipse (Credit: NASA/GSFC/F. Espenak).
If the Moon’s orbit was not inclined to our own, we’d get two eclipses per lunation, one solar and one lunar.
2013 has 5 eclipses, 3 lunar and 2 annular. The minimum number of eclipses that can occur in a calendar year is 4, and the maximum is 7, as will next occur in 2038.
The 3 lunar eclipses in 2013 are this week’s partial eclipse on April 25th and two faint penumbral eclipses, one on May 25th and another on October 18th. There is no total lunar eclipse in 2013. The last one occurred on December 10th 2011, and the next one won’t occur until April 15th 2014, favoring the Pacific Rim region.
This eclipse will also set us up for the first solar eclipse of 2013, an annular eclipse crossing NE Australia (in fact crossing the path of last year’s total eclipse near Cairns) and the south Pacific on May 10th. The only solar totality that will touch the surface of the Earth in 2013 is the hybrid eclipse on November 3rd spanning Africa and the South Atlantic with a maximum totality of 1 minute & 40 seconds.
Contact times for the April 25 shallow eclipse:
P1-The Moon touches the penumbra-18:03:41 UT
U1-The Moon touches the umbra-19:54:04 UT
Mid-Eclipse-20:08:37.5 UT
U4 -The Moon quits the umbra-20:21:04 UT
P4-The Moon quits the penumbra- 22:11:23 UT
The length of the partial phase of the eclipse is exactly 27 minutes, and the length of the entire eclipse is 4 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds.
This particular eclipse is part of saros series 112 and is member 65 of 72.
This saros cycle began in 859 C.E. on May 20th and will end in 2139 on July 12th with a penumbral lunar eclipse. One famous member of this series was 52. This eclipse was one of many used by Captain James Cook to fix his longitude at sea on December 4th 1778. Christopher Columbus also attempted this feat while voyaging to the New World. It’s a fun project that anyone can try!
I also remember watching the last eclipse in this series from South Korea on April 15th 1995, a slightly better partial of 11.14%.
An occultation of the bright star Spica occurs just 20 hours prior as seen from South Africa across the southern Atlantic. This the 5th in a series of 13 occultations of the star by the Moon in 2013.
The visibility region for the April 25th occultation of Spica. (Created by the Author using Occult 4.1.0.2).
The +2.8th magnitude star Zubenelgenubi (Alpha Librae) is occulted by the waning gibbous Moon just 15 hours after the eclipse for Australia and the South Pacific.
Another occultation of a bright star with potential this week is +4.7th magnitude Chi Virginis across North America on the morning of Wednesday, April 24th centered on 4:24 UT.
Visibility region for the occultation of Chi Virginis on April 24th. (Created by the author using Occult 4.1.0.2 software).
Also keep an eye out for +0.1 magnitude Saturn near the Full Moon. Saturn reaches opposition this weekend for 2013 on April 28th
Full Moon occurs near mid-eclipse at 20:00 UT/16:00 EDT on April 25th. Colloquial names for the April Full Moon are the Pink, Fish, Sprouting Grass, Egg, Seed, & Waking Moon.
Sure, the penumbral phases of an eclipse are subtle and may not be noticeable to the naked eye… but it is possible to see the difference photographically. Simply take a photo of the Moon before it enters the Earth’s penumbra, then take one during the penumbral phase and then another one after. Be sure to keep the ISO/f-stop and shutter speed exactly the same throughout. Also, this project only works if the eclipsed Moon is high in the sky throughout the exposures, as the thick air low to the horizon will discolor the Moon as well. Compare the shots; do you see a difference?
A penumbral eclipse would offer a good proof of concept test for hunting for transiting exoplanets as well, although to our knowledge, no one has ever attempted this.
Finally, calling out to all Universe Today readers in Madagascar. YOU may just be able to catch a transit of the International Space Station in front of the Moon just as the ragged edge of the umbra becomes apparent on the limb of the Moon. Check CALSky a day or so prior to the eclipse for a refined path… it would be an unforgettable pic!
The position of the ISS on April 25th at 19:48UT, just minutes before the partial phase of the eclipse begins. (Credit: Orbitron).
And if any ambitious observer is planning to live stream the eclipse, let us know and we’ll add your embed to this post. We do not expect an avalanche of web broadcasts, but hey, we’d definitely honor the effort! Slooh is usually a pretty dependable site for live eclipse broadcasts, and as of this writing seems to have broadcast scheduled in the cue.
The Moon’s shadow stretches over the Earth in this balloon-mounted camera view of the November 14 solar eclipse (Catalin Beldea, Marc Ulieriu, Daniel Toma et. al/Stiinta&Tehnica)
On November 14, 2012, tens of thousands of viewers across northeastern Australia got a great view of one of the most awe-inspiring sights in astronomy — a total solar eclipse. Of course many fantastic photos and videos were taken of the event, but one team of high-tech eclipse hunters from Romania went a step further — or should I say higher — and captured the event from a video camera mounted on a weather balloon soaring over 36,800 meters (120,000 feet) up!
Their video can be seen below:
During a solar eclipse the Moon passes in front of the disk of the Sun, casting its shadow upon the Earth. Any viewers within the darkest part of the shadow — the umbra — will experience a total eclipse, while those within the wider, more diffuse shadow area along the perimeter — the penumbra — will see a partial eclipse.
By launching a weather balloon carrying a wide-angle camera into the stratosphere above Queensland, eclipse hunter and amateur astronomer Catalin Beldea, ROSA research scientist Florin Mingireanu and others on the team were able to obtain their incredible video of the November 14 total eclipse from high enough up that the shadow of the Moon was visible striking Earth’s atmosphere. Totality only lasted a couple of minutes so good timing was essential… but they got the shot. Very impressive!
The mission was organized by teams from the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) and Stiinta&Tehnica.com, with the video assembled by Daniel Toma and posted on YouTube by editor-in-chief Marc Ulieriu. Music by Shamil Elvenheim.
On the ground, the total solar eclipse of November 13/14, 2012 was only visible to only to observers in northern Australia. But ESA’s Sun-watching satellite Proba-2 enjoyed three partial eclipses from its vantage point in space.
During a total solar eclipse, the Moon moves in front of the Sun as seen from Earth, their alignment and separation such that the much closer Moon appears large enough to block out the light from the much more distant Sun.
Since Proba-2 orbits Earth about 14.5 times per day, it can dip in and out of the Moon’s shadow around the time of a solar eclipse. The constant change in viewing angle of Proba-2 meant that the satellite passed through the shadow three times during the eclipse yesterday, as shown in the video above.
ESA says the apparent noise in the movie results from high energy particles hitting Proba-2’s electronics as the spacecraft passes through the South Atlantic Anomaly. The dimming in the movie is an effect as part of the satellite’s orbit passes through the shadow of the Earth.
Proba-2 image of the solar disc taken during the total eclipse of July 2010, combined with ground-based images taken at the same time to reveal the exquisite details of the solar corona. Credit: ESA
Read more about Proba-2’s day of eclipses from ESA.
View of the eclipse from Clifton Beach in Queensland, Australia. Credit: Camilla the Rubber Chicken
Here are some images and video from the total solar eclipse from today, November 13/14, 2012 (depending on where you were), which was visible only from the northern part of Australia. The image above comes from Camilla_SDO, the mascot of the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission. “Clifton Beach was cheering during the totality and Diamond Ring,” Camilla tweeted.
We’ll be adding more images as they become available.
Here are some photos via Robert Hollow, education and public outreach specialist who traveled to Maitland Downs in Queensland, Australia with the “Under a Darkened Star” Student Astronomy Conference, sponsored by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO):
Totality from Maitland Downs. Credit: Robert Hollow/CSIRO.
An eclipsed Sun rises over a ridge in Maitland Downs, Queensland, Australia. Credit: Robert Hollow/CSIRO.
A ‘wedding ring’ at end of totality from Maitland Downs. Credit: Robert Hollow/CSIRO
A view of the Sun after totality through a refractor telescope. Credit: Robert Hollow/CSIRO
Screenshot from the webcast feed from Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia at 20:30 UTC.
A montage of the Solar Eclipse, sent in by Julia, as seen from Adelaide, South Australia. Click to see a larger version.
Daniel Fischer traveled to Australia to watch the eclipse, and described the experience as “Pure drama with complicated clouds – slender solar crescents seen moments before C2 and after C3 but totality was invisible.” Here are a few of his images:
Eclipse watchers at Wangetti Beach in Queensland, Australia. Credit: Daniel Fischer.
Approaching totality, through the clouds at Wangetti Beach in Queensland, Australia. Credit: Daniel Fischer.
A sliver of a crescent, nearing totality with more clouds at Wangetti Beach in Queensland, Australia. Credit: Daniel Fischer.
Ian Musgrave from Adelaide, Australia traveled to Cairns in Queensland just for the eclipse, and was completely clouded out, but still took this interesting picture. “The sky went eerily dark, and the patch of sun on the sea went out,” he wrote on his blog. “Afterwards, the cloud went away just as the Sun appeared from behind the Moon. Amazing.”
Below is a group of images from Shahrin Ahmad, who wrote us, “With the weather in Cairns not promising, we decided to go inland to Mareeba, with a slightly shorter eclipse totality duration of 1 minute 39 seconds. We were lucky because the sky here was clear and free from clouds. With the Moon so low to the horizon, this eclipse seems ‘larger’ than usual, due to the Moon Illusion effect. It was certainly a spectacular eclipse!”
Diamond Ring effect seen at Mareeba. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad
Just moments before second contact. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad
Prominences, loops of plasma are seen emanating from the Sun’s limb during the eclipse. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad
Moonshadow. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad
More images from the webcasts:
Screenshot from the Panasonic feed from Fitzroy Island during totality.
Screenshot of NASA’s eclipse webcast feed just the Sun emerged from totality over Palm Cove, Australia. Via Jason Major.
Screenshot of the feed from Fitzroy Island at 20:18 UTC.
Watch live, even if you can’t be in northern Australia to see the total solar eclipse. The above feed is from the Slooh Space Camera team, live from Cairns, Australia – the only land site in the world to view totality. Slooh has a three-person crew at Cairns, including photographer Anjali Bermain, Astronomy Magazine’s Bob Berman, author of “The Sun’s Heartbeat”, and experienced astro-imager Matt Francis of the Prescott Observatory. Dr. Lucie Green, solar researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, will join the broadcast along with Slooh’s President, Patrick Paolucci, and Slooh’s Public Outreach Coordinator, Paul Cox.
Scientists and interested skywatchers have been flocking to Cairns, Australia to witness one of the most spellbinding astronomical sights: a total solar eclipse. The November 13/14 total solar eclipse will only be visible in its entirety to ground-based observers watching from northern Australia, but several webcasts will be available so that people around the world can watch as well. At about 22:11:48 UT on November 13 (it will be the morning of Nov. 14th in Australia) the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun, and totality will only last about 2 minutes, with the Sun having risen just 14 degrees above the eastern horizon. The total time of the event, from first contact to fourth contact (the end of a solar eclipse when the disk of the Moon completely passes from the disk of the Sun) will be about 3 hours.
During totality the Sun appears to have a white halo – a rare glimpse of the Sun’s million-degree plasma atmosphere, or corona, which is too washed out by the Sun’s brightness to be observed normally.
During an eclipse, “the Moon reveals the innermost corona, which manmade coronagraphs have trouble seeing,” said Shadia Habbal of the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii, who will be in Australia for the event. “That is where all the magnetic field and physical processes responsible for heating the corona are evolving most rapidly.”
For this total solar eclipse, the path of totality will be about 174 km (108 miles) wide and will cover 14,500 km (9,000 miles) over a 3-hour period.
Proba-2 image of the solar disc taken during the total eclipse of July 2010, combined with ground-based images taken at the same time to reveal the exquisite details of the solar corona. Credit: ESA
Slooh will be having their webcast at Slooh.com, starting Tuesday, November 13th at 11:30 AM PST / 2:30 PM EST / 19:30 UTC. Viewers can watch the show on their PC or mobile device and will have the ability to ask questions to the Slooh team, including the crew located in Cairns, using the Slooh Conversations section on the Slooh homepage. Viewers will also be able to snap the live pictures directly from the Slooh homepage using Pinterest. The broadcast team includes Patrick Paolucci, Bob Berman, Lucie Green, Matt Francis and Paul Cox.
Another feed will be from the Cairns Eclipse 2012 Ustream channel, broadcast from over Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: http://www.ustream.tv/CairnsEclipse2012, and their website is http://www.eclipse2012.org.au
This channel will be live from 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) on Nov. 13, and 5 am November 14th 2012 (AEST). It is considered the official destination website for the total solar Eclipse over Cairns and Great Barrier Reef will feature Terry Cuttle from the Astronomical Association of Queensland as the host. He will be joined by Kate Russo (eclipse chaser and author), Ben Southall (winner of the ‘Best Job in the World’ promotion and tourism ambassador), Richard Fitzpatrick (an underwater cameraman, will be live from under water) and Alan Hale (from Hale-Bopp comet who is studying comets close to the Sun which can only be seen during an eclipse).
Panasonic’s project, described as, “Filming the Sun, using the Sun” aims to capture and broadcast to the world a solar eclipse using only the power of sunlight. They’re using Panasonic’s high efficiency solar power-generating system, “HIT” to generate power with a portable battery back for power storage. They’ll then be able to broadcast the eclipse images captured on a Lumix GH2.
2012 Eclipse live from a Cairns Hot Air Balloon http://www.hotair.com.au
Up to a dozen hot air balloons floating west of Cairns, Queensland Australia, with visitors from 20 different countries will be part of a live webcast of the 2012 total solar eclipse.
Cairns City Eclipse 2012 webcam http://www.eclipsecairns.com
Can’t make it to Cairns to see the Eclipse? No problem! Just check back on November 14 before 6:39am AEST (GMT+10) to see it live on their webcam.
GLORIA Project http://live.gloria-project.eu
Videos and pictures of the eclipse will be broadcast live on the internet starting at 20:30 UT. Additionally meteorological data will be collected to allow students to perform an interactive experiment. During the broadcast there will be live commentary in Spanish and English.
Yes, Mars gets eclipses too! This brief animation, made from ten raw subframe images acquired with Curiosity’s Mastcam on September 13 — the 37th Sol of the mission — show the silhouette of Mars’ moon Phobos as it slipped in front of the Sun’s limb.
The entire animation spans a real time of about 2 minutes.
As a moon Phobos really is an oddity. In addition to its small size – only 8 miles (13 km) across at its widest – and irregular shape, it also orbits its parent planet at a very low altitude, only 5,840 miles (9,400 km) and thus needs to travel at a relatively high velocity in order to even stay in orbit. Phobos actually orbits Mars over three times faster than Mars rotates, appearing to rise in Mars’ western sky. And its orbit is so low that it can’t even be seen from the polar regions!
Since Phobos, and its even more petite sibling Deimos, are so small, the Mars rovers won’t ever see a total solar eclipse. In fact these events are often referred to as transits rather than actual eclipses.
This isn’t the first time an eclipse was captured by a Mars Exploration Rover; Opportunity witnessed a similar partial eclipse of the Sun by Phobos in December 2010, and Spirit caught a lunar (or “Phobal?”) eclipse on camera back in 2005, when the moon passed into the shadow of Mars.
Curiosity’s find was no accident, either, as mission engineers had the Mastcam already positioned to capture the event. Preparation really pays off!
See the latest images and news from the MSL mission here.
Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems. Animation by Jason Major. Inset image: Phobos as seen by Mars Express ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
UPDATE 9/19/12: See a close-up animation of the eclipse event here.
A high altitude balloon captures the annular solar eclipse on May 20, 2012. Note the dark area on Earth where the eclipse would be visible from the ground. Credit: Project Soar.
[/caption]
During the May 20 annular eclipse, two teams sent a duo of high altitude balloons to simultaneously capture the event, and they got some amazing pictures. Not only did the two imaging systems on the balloons take pictures of the eclipse, but they also took pictures of each other, with both balloons near the edge of space. “Our goal was to launch 2 capsules to the edge of space to shoot photos and high-definition videos during the annular solar eclipse,” David Gonzales of Project Soar told Universe Today.
Liftoff of the two balloons. Credit: Project Soar.
Project Soar has sent seven balloon launches with their reusable PURSUIT capsule to take images of Earth and space. They teamed up with Larry Grater who sent his North Texas Near Space capsule NTNS-1 on its maiden flight.
Image taken from a high altitude balloon during the May 20, 2012 annular eclipse. Credit: Project Soar.
“In several of the images, you can see NTNS-1 under its balloon as shot from PURSUIT against a pitch black sky,” Gonzales said via email. “Despite the sun being high in the sky during the flights, you can see how dark the ground got in some of the images due to sun being mostly covered by our moon. Unlike a total eclipse though, there is no obvious dark spot as the transition between full annular and partial eclipse around the center-line is very gradual and not as sharp as in a total eclipse.”
A lens flare from the annular eclipse on May 20, 2012. Credit: Project Soar.
Also visible is the eclipse in various stages as Sun-shaped lens flare in many the images.
PURSUIT while still under the balloon as shot from NTNS-1. Credit: North Texas Near Space.
The launch sites were chosen just hours before launch to ensure the trajectories would stay on the center-line for the eclipse and avoid overflying any restricted airspace, Gonzales said.
“We had a particularly challenging countdown as 2 balloons had to be filled with Hydrogen for a very narrow launch window,” he said.
Both capsules took to the skies on time from an East Albuquerque hiking park, and then had to immediately clear the Sandia mountains right after liftoff before continuing their journeys to the edge of space. As the team and other onlookers enjoyed the annular eclipse from the ground, the two balloons shot photos and videos from near space.
The Project Soar team retrieved their capsule the day after the eclipse. Credit: Project Soar.
Here’s a compilation of the HD video that was shot, with an amazing view of the PURSUIT capsule falling after burst at high altitude (at 8:53). “NTNS-1 caught PURSUIT right after burst in the video,” Gonzales said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen imagery of a capsule falling after burst at high altitude before.” Other key events in the video are NTNS-1 and PURSUIT close pass at 0:52, the PURSUIT Capsule visible at 7:24, PURSUIT descent at 8:53, NTNS-1 Burst at 11:41
Eclipse Soar was a collaborative effort between Project Soar of San Antonio and North Texas Near Space of Dallas.
Composite of 10 images from the Partial Lunar Eclipse on June 4, 2012 from Mexico City. Credit: Genaro Grajeda
[/caption]
Early on June 4th, the full “Strawberry” Moon passed through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse. It was visible across the ‘Pacific’ side of Earth, from Asia to North America, and began at about 10:00 UTC (3:00 a.m. PDT), reaching its maximum at 11:03 UTC (4:03 a.m. PDT). At most about 38% of the Moon’s diameter was in shadow.
Some great images are coming in, like this collage of 10 photos from Genaro Grajeda in Mexico City, taken from 3:55 a.m. to 6:35 a.m.
See more below, and for any of the images, click for larger versions and/or the original version!
Prolific and accomplished astrophotographer John Chumack traveled from his home in Ohio to Tucson, Arizona to capture the eclipse. Compare these two images he took, the first with 1/160th of a second exposure, the second with a half second exposure.
“I took many shots, and here are a couple,” said Chumack, “one showing normal exposure of the Moon, but something dark is covering it…and the second shot was deliberately over exposed to reveal the culprit — Earth’s Shadow covering up part of the Moon during Maximum Eclipse for us in Tucson.”
Partial Lunar Eclipse 6-04-2012 from Tucson, Arizona, USA during maximum, with 1/160th of a second exposure. Credit: John Chumack.Partial Lunar Eclipse 6-04-2012 from Tucson, Arizona, USA, during Maximum Eclipse. Credit: John ChumackA view of the eclipse between telephone wires. Credit: Astro-Nutt (ColinC) on Flickr.The June 4, 2012 lunar eclipse taken through a Galileoscope and webcam from Arizona. Credit: Rob Sparks.Taken during the eclipse on the road up to Summerhaven on Mt. Lemon, near Tucson AZ, at about 6,300 feet elevation. Credit: Bob Riddle. 'Caught the last little bit of the eclipse' said photographer Bill Ogg.The June 4, 2012 partial lunar eclipse. Credit: Jason Hill
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
