Hey honey! Take a walk on the dark side

Last night I witnessed a partial Lunar eclipse. As I found out, the same are the rarest, total Lunar eclipses are more common than partial ones.

Yesterday I had planned to spend the day with my brother and my sister in law... they were cooking paella for me! The day went smoothly, effortlessly... and after the copious lunch, a 'siesta' was in order. My dozing was only interrupted by my brother's clicking of the remote! I was only half awaken when I heard the local news announcing the eclipse to begin at 9:30pm and that the Agrupacion Astronomica de Sabadell, an astronomy group in Sabadell was inviting the general public to visit their facilities and take a closer look at the Lunar eclipse through their telescopes. What a great opportunity! I thought. 'I live in Sabadell, maybe they are close by'... But, by the time I left to go home it almost was 9:30pm... I never thought I would make it! 'They probably are on top of a mountain, or something'...

As soon as I walked in I improvised a tripod with a ladder and some books... Oh, and to get the right angle, I placed a wedge of 'manchego' cheese between the books! I started taking pics of the Moon, every 5 minutes or so... I wanted to follow the progress of the eclipse through the images.

All of a sudden I decided to look at the web address for that astronomy group and... surprise, surprise! they are located just a 5 minute ride away from home! I didn't think, I acted upon it! Called a cab and jumped right into it... Hey honey, I decided to take a walk on the dark side!

Once at the observatory, I was able to take a few pics through both, a telescope and some binoculars. I also took a tour of the facilities, hosted by astrophysicist Xavi Puig.

I learned that Lunar eclipses can only occur when there is a full Moon and the same passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. That the reddish color of the Moon during the eclipse, it is formed by red light released through the Earth's atmosphere acting as a prism. I learned that red color light it's the only one of the 4 primary colors that can escape our atmosphere. Blue, green and yellow are trapped by it. Thus the bloody color on the eclipsed lunar surface.

Last night's eclipse lasted from 19:36pm UT (Universal Time) 9:36pm local time, to 23:57pm UT, or 1:57am local time, and it was an 81% eclipse.

All of you who want to get more information on Sabadell's astronomy group or about eclipses in general, can check out the following sites:
www.astrosabadell.org
www.mreclipse.com

Enjoy the pictures!

9:40pm, just 4 minutes after first contact with the penumbra

There is a new lunar cycle every 28 days

Partial eclipses are not as common as total eclipses.

A Lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow and only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very close to, with the Earth standing right in the middle.

Upon my arrival at the observatory, I took a few pics through binocular lenses

The next total lunar eclipse occurs on December 21, 2010.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the Moon enters the umbra.

Taken through a telescope's lense... totally improvised!



At 23:11 local time, the eclipse reached its max of 81%. News' crews from a couple of local TV stations were covering the event... Did I tell you I was recruited right on the spot to do the 10 sec countdown in front of the cameras????? Didn't I???? How dumb of me! lol



Astrophysicist Xavi Puig at the observatory with the Moon on the background.

The scientists monitor everything from their computers... I'm afraid it is only in the movies where they still look through big telescopes' lenses... Hollywood!