This is our second lunar eclipse for the year here in Australia, but unlike the last eclipse seen in April when the Moon was fully eclipsed at Moonrise this time we’ll see the whole eclipse above the horizon.

For you to enjoy the event you’ll only need to have a clear eastern horizon, penumbral begins here on the Gold Coast at 6.14pm and by 7.00pm you’ll really start to see the eclipsed Moon moving into the Earths shadow. 

The whole event moves quite slowly and lasts from beginning to end just over five hours…so you’ll have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the spectacle. The best was to view the eclipse is just with your eyes or a pair of binoculars, and if you have a telescope that’s even better but I find it dulls the colour a little bit visually through the eyepiece.

If your taking images you can use your longest telephoto lens on a tripod to take some shot shots but at full eclipse be prepared to take exposures from up to 5-10 seconds, as there’s very little light on the surface of the Moon. If you are not using a tracking mount this may be a problem so turn up the ISO and see how you go at totality.

All lunar eclipses are different it all depends how much dust, smoke or moisture is in the atmosphere that determines how dark or light the eclipsed Moon will look. The only reason we are seeing the Moon at all is because the Suns light is being refracted through the Earths atmosphere and shining onto the surface of the Moon while it's orbiting through the Earths shadow. Please find below a diagram I made up with some of my images to explain what is happening…of course the Earth images is courtesy of NASA :-)

The following information is from Astronomy 2014 published by Quasar Publishing and we astronomers use it every day for our astronomical times and information.

Astronomy 2014, page 85:                    AEST              AWST             UT
Penumbral eclipse begins (P1)            6:14pm            4:14pm            08:14am
Partial eclipse begins (U1)                   7:14pm            5:15pm            09:14am
Total eclipse begins  (U2)                    8:25pm            6:25pm            10:24am
Greatest eclipse (Totality)                    8:55pm            6:55pm            10:54am
Total eclipse Ends (U3)                        9:25pm            7:25pm            11:24am
Partial eclipse ends (U4)                      10:35pm          8:35pm            12:34pm
Penumbral eclipse ends (P4)               11:35pm          9:35pm            13:35pm

If you would like to see some images from the last lunar eclipse taken in April with just my DSLR camera and telephoto lens on a tripod please go to my blog at: 
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-total-eclipse-of-the-moon-on-the-15th-april-2014

On Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th September I visited the beautiful O’Reilly’s resort for a special lunar event that was being held worldwide to entice the general community to go outside and look up at nearest celestial neighbour…the Moon.

On Friday evening, I gave a talk in the theatre on how important the Moon is to our planet and showed many of my images of the different phases of the Moon as it orbits the Earth. There are also some spectacular occurrences that are produced when the Moon, Earth and Sun are in a perfect alignment and here I showed some beautiful images of lunar eclipses and two rare solar eclipses that occurred in Australia in 2012 & 2013.

After the presentation we all went outside to see the real 10-day-old Moon through my large telescope. I also showed the constellations in the sky with a rare view of two planets Saturn and Mars in the constellation of Libra. The sky was lovely and clear but it was very cold!

On Saturday the 6th September InOMN night, we revisited the Moon again as some new people had joined us and then I gave a presentation on our Starry Starry night where I showed everyone how they could take beautiful images of the Moon and the night sky with little more than a camera set up on a tripod. For the more adventurous that owned a telescope I helped explain the attachments and camera settings that would be needed to take some wonderful images of the Moon and other celestial objects with there telescopes.

After the presentation we went outside to look at the Moon again just to see how much more detail was displayed on the terminator line from the previous night…this time we had some high cirrus cloud and a bitterly cold wind blowing, when you are at 3000 ft on top of a mountain this wind can be very very cold…but everyone was brave and stayed outside long enough to look at our beautiful Moon.

We then all retired to the warm theatre room to talk about all things astronomical and enjoyed the hot drinks and star cookies that the chef made for us; everyone enjoyed their lunar star party on top of the mountain for InOMN 2014, thank you to the O’Reilly’s Rainforest Resort for hosting this special event for all there guests and visitors.

If you’ve attended an InOMN event please go to the InOMN web site and download your participation certificate at:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/observethemoonnight/materials/2014/certificate.pdf
http://observethemoonnight.org/

If you would love to visit this most amazing natural area at Lamington National Park then O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat is the perfect place to stay at: http://www.oreillys.com.au/

If you love camping there’s the beautiful Green Mountains Campground with all amenities that's nearby to O’Reilly’s on the mountain, please go to the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife web site where you’ll find out all about this most remarkable place in South East Queensland.
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/lamington/about.html

Happy stargazing until next time….Noeleen Lowndes :-)

~ Saturday 6th September 2014 ~

This year SAS is doing two events for InOMN. I will be on top of the mountain at Lamington National Park for the weekend at the beautiful O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat giving lunar presentations and viewings at: http://www.oreillys.com.au/

Our other club members will be setting up their telescopes at a property called Woodstock at Tamborine for a charity event to show everyone our beautiful Moon in the night sky.

Please go to my Astro Events page for all the details…the weather forecast for this weekend is saying…lovely clear skies…Yippee!

If you would like to attend an event in your area then please go to the InOMN world map where you’ll find more events being held across Queensland and the other states in Australia, along with the rest of the world…and have a wonderful night :-)  http://observethemoonnight.org/