[extropy-chat] The Lunar Eclipse night of 3-4 March ...

[Amara Graps]

.. was glorious!

Here: An amateur German astronomy group with professional pictures,
"Live" from the event:
http://www.vds-astro.de/astroaktuell/2007/Mondfinsternis/live/Mondfinsternis-live.htm

My small experiment with a "Canon Powershot" digital camera (heh!)
http://amara.com/luneclipse/

Compare an image from the folks with the professional equipment:
http://www.vds-astro.de/astroaktuell/2007/Mondfinsternis/image/IMG_3047B.jpg

with an image from my handy digital that is not designed for such photography
http://amara.com/luneclipse/IMG_5289_cropped.jpg

Ok, you laugh, but at least the lunar maria is correct, true?

Samantha, now I know what all of those settings do.  :-)

Did any of you see it? The professional and amateur astronomy groups are
always aware about things like this, but there was no indication that
anyone in my town was aware about it. I almost never watch TV, so I
don't know if it was a TV news item.

In total I've seen four lunar eclipses from my flat in my town, 4 x
4 hours = 16 hours of eclipsing, with people walking around below my
apartment building, and with 100 other apartments with terraces looking
in the same direction as mine, and I never saw a single person looking
UP or from their terraces at the glorious spectacle of the eclipsed Moon
occurring over their heads. How difficult can it be to look at the Moon?
I'm a misfit here.

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
INAF Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Roma, ITALIA
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute (PSI), Tucson