Challenges and Catching Up (Part 2)

 

Just past the halfway point for the annular eclipse

        This will be more of an blog entry told with pictures and their captions. I had been waiting for several months to witness the annular eclipse on 14 October. It wasn't the first time I had seen one. In fact I was witness to a total eclipse in August 2017, it's just this is the first one where I had a telescope. So I made sure my calendar was clear of scheduling conflicts. I had a bad moment Friday afternoon where the weather forecast called for clouds the next day, but mother nature smiled on our area with mostly clear skies. 

        The morning turned out to be a success with a new moon and exceptionally clear skies for my trip to Oracle that evening. 

Beautiful weather greeting us the morning of the eclipse

Gracie wants outside

Both cats not happy about being left inside. 

The trusty Orion EQ filtered and in position

Logs, charts and ice water

Sunspots still visible through the cirrus clouds just before the start.

The moon just touching at lower right

        Soon, the shadow advanced over the face of the sun....

        A very interesting effect from an eclipse is what happens to shadows. I noticed my own shadow getting diffuse with blurred lines: 

    

        Another effect is sunlight that shines through openings becomes scalloped from the moon's shadow:

        Briefly, I removed my smartphone from the eyepiece so I could get some real-time observation in. A closeup revealed the terrain of the moon silhouetted against the light of the sun: 

        Time went on until the moon reached its limit before skirting past the sun again:

Eclipse at greatest coverage for our area

        Although we were at 80% or so it was still a mysterious event, with the light noticeably dimming and even the air temperature was moderated. I logged a temp of 74 at max coverage, which is really nice for Tucson - even this time of year. 

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        Some yardwork and a nap that afternoon before heading out to Oracle for the new moon. I was rewarded with incredibly clear skies with "...a billion stars all around". So many in fact that my asterism list went untended due to the fact that it was very hard to discern constellations because I wasn't used to seeing so many stars. 

        The only minus to the trip was my Astrohopper app was unusable. I use an old junk Android with no mobile service. Without mobile service or the WIFI it uses at home, the geolocation had no bearings and malfunctioned. So I went old school with charts and the Telrad. Still I managed to sight some things which have eluded me (M33, Neptune) and revisited many others. Andromeda galaxy was clearly visible with the naked eye and even more amazing through the scope. The double cluster in Cassiopeia packed a punch. 

        It's a great place to visit even without a scope. I met one visitor from Virginia who parked just before sunset and hiked into the wilderness. When he came back, he said he just likes to go to places like this. He then hikes to a place where he can just lie down and contemplate the stars. It was a perfect night to do so.