2015/09/27 Total Lunar Eclipse

This is the last of a series of 4 consecutive total lunar eclipses visible from US in year 2014 and 2015. On the west coast, the Moon rises just before the total phase starts.  The sky was completely clouded out in the morning and afternoon, but we were lucky enough that the western and northern sky cleared up right before sunset, although the remaining thick low clouds in eastern and southern sky blocked the red Moon completely.

2015/09/27 Total Lunar Eclipse Composite

The lunar eclipse was coincident with Chinese Autumn Festival, and for its great timing, I set up my telescope in the park near my house, and invited many friend and my kids classmates to observe the eclipse and celebrate the festival. There were more than 60 kids and parents (maybe even more) showed up, most of them have never seen the Moon through the telescope before, they were all very excited about observing the eclipse with the telescope.

Equipments

Telescope and the Eclipse

20h30m20s, 1s @ ISO 400
Red and Turquoise Moon

21h30m58s, 1/1250s @ ISO 400
Super Moon

Super Moon vs Macro Moon Eclipse

This lunar eclipse was also special because the moon was called supermoon. Super moon is when the full moon is near the Perigee, so the moon looks larger and brighter than normal full moon.

So how much bigger is the super Moon? I compared it with the total lunar eclipse took place on4/4/2015, when the Moon was close to smallest. Both were taken with the same equipments. I measured, the super Moon was ~13% larger in diameter.

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NGC7635 – Bubble Nebula (2015/09/06)

(description obtained from APOD) Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Below and left of the Bubble’s center is a hot, O star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

Date: 09/06/2015
Location:, Glory Hole Recreation Area, CA
Condition: excellent transparency, excellent seeing after 1PM
Exposure: Ha – 1200sx19, Dark/Bias/Flat calibrated
Date: 09/18/2015
Location: BLM Panoche Hill, CA
Condition: excellent transparency, excellent seeing
Exposure: O3 – 1200sx18, Dark/Bias/Flat calibrated
Date: 09/19/2015
Location: BLM Panoche Hill, CA
Condition: excellent transparency, excellent seeing
Exposure: S2 – 1200sx16, Ha – 1200×9, Dark/Bias/Flat calibrated

Total: Ha – 1200sx28, O3 – 1200sx18, S2 – 1200sx16
Equipment: AT111EDT on CGEM, guided by OAG-8300/ST-i. STF8300M+FW8+Baader LRGB
Software: Pixinsight