Nice eclipse, I watched everything from SPOC until a cloud covered the moon just before totality ended. I watched the final stages from home. It was a deep eclipse, but not the darkest I have seen. Good color, a ruddy, rusty red-orange. No Helion flashes but several Aurigids and many sporadics- several that qualified as "fireballs". Actually a surprisingly good night for meteors. During totality Bruce and I were looking for deep-sky objects in our 70mm binos. I nabbed M27 and the Double Cluster. I was glad that I opted for the 20 x 70mm binos over the 15x. The lunar limb showed better detail at 20x- and because Kurt was there it wasn't necessary to consult a lunar atlas to identify features (thanks Kurt!). Good turnout at SPOC for an event in the wee hours. Mosquitos were not the problem that they were out there a few weeks ago. Many members of the press showed-up, all of whom seemed to be having a genuine good time themselves and not merely covering a story. It was good to see everybody including some folks I haven't seen in some time. The only disappointment was that the "Andy" refractor is apparently "up on blocks" again, and I didn't get a view through it before it was shut down. Thanks to SLAS and the event organizers for a wonderful time! On 8/28/07, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Even though I set my alarm for 2:30, I must have turned it off in my sleep, because I didn't wake until about 3:30. From my front yard I watched the last few minutes of the penumbral phase and a few minutes of totality, until about 4:15. Only my 9-year-old son was interested enough to join me for a few minutes. I then tried to sleep a bit and got up again about 4:45 for a brief look. Took another look a little after 5:00, then went back to bed again. I may as well have stayed up the whole time, since I didn't really sleep after I first awoke at 3:30.
I observed without optical aid this time (I couldn't even find my glasses). This eclipse seemed a little "deeper" to me than some I've seen. During totality, most of the moon was a deep orange, with the brighter limb a red-orange and the darker limb almost brownish. What did others observe?
Kim
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