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This is the Classical Astronomy Update, an email newsletter especially
for Christian homeschool families (though everyone is welcome!)
Please feel free to share this with any interested friends.
IN THIS UPDATE:
- Dance of the Planets
- Lunar Reports With Photos
Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the
sun, and terrible as an army with banners? - Song of Solomon 6:10
Welcome to the Classical Astronomy Update!
Hello Friends,
Hope everyone got to see the lunar eclipse last Wednesday. Against my worst expectations, we had a clear sky in Cleveland, Ohio at eclipse time and were treated to a rare winter sight! Thanks to everyone who emailed their eclipse reports and photos. We got a flood of reports this time and I do appreciate everyone's efforts to observe this event and share their views. With no further ado, let's dive in!
Dance of the Planets
Eclipse Reports With Photos
I'm so happy to report that the LORD blessed our family with clear skies! We were able to enjoy the eclipse from the normally-cloud-enshrouded shores of the Great Lakes! I can only recall one other time seeing an eclipse in a frosty, crystal winter sky, and this was a special treat!
Though we had scattered clouds all that day, they blew away as night fell. We first spotted the Moon as a dusky edge crept over the lower portion of its face. The partial stage deepened as we headed home. As the Moon grew dark, I noticed that it was among the stars of Leo, and that Saturn was nearby. It occurred to me that I failed to include this in the last Update. A quick glance later at my almanack revealed that this eclipse also happened to be a conjunction of the Moon with the bright star Regulus and also the planet Saturn. My apologies for failing to mention this, hope you all noticed the Moon's proximity to these stars.
As the eclipse became total, it became easier to see Saturn and Regulus, and these two shown quite brightly during the stage of totality. The Moon was dusky grey looking on the left side, and a rusty red in the middle, with a brighter portion near the place where the Moon was grazing the Earth's shadow. I've seen numerous photos of this eclipse, and none really captured the color that I saw. This graphic is my best ability to show the colors we saw in the Moon that night.
It was very cold that night -- somewhere in the teens or single digits. I stood outside for quite a while, since I love the cold weather. My wife and kids didn't last long, and unfortunately failed to observe much of the event. But we were all blessed to see the amazing clockwork of God's celestial creation in action once again.
We got this very detailed report from our good friend Dr. Parsons of Jackson, Michigan:
My family did not expect to be able to see the lunar eclipse last night because the Southern Michigan mid-February weather maliciously allows very few glimpses past the clouds. We were thrilled to find ourselves treated to a cloudless sky. Our trade-off for the clear sky, however, was a temperature of 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 C).
After piling out of our van, having returned home from our Wednesday evening Church AWANA meeting at about 8:40, we saw the full moon in the Eastern sky risen just above our neighbor's trees. A bright five degree rainbow-like halo surrounded it. In the bright full moon sky we could see the main stars of Orion high in the South and could just barely make out his sword and just discern the fuzzy patch which was the Pleiades. Looking back toward Leo, neither Saturn nor Regulus were visible.
Like clockwork, a small dark bite appeared on the moon's face exactly when predicted. We decided against standing outside in the snow in 6 degree weather for the whole evening and, after my younger children spent some time jumping around making the unique crunching sound you get when you jump on snow when it's really cold, we retreated indoors. We were pleased to find that the moon was visible from a bedroom window so we were able to leisurely and warmly watch as the shadow advanced across the face of the moon.
 Soon after 10:00 the moon was fully enshadowed and looked a copper-brown color. We went back outside and could clearly see Saturn and Regulus close by, forming a triangle with the moon. My children were surprised at how much darker it had become. We could see a dramatic increase in the number of visible stars, as though the sky opened up to reveal hidden glories. The milky way was visible and you could see stars almost up to the edge of the moon. The ground snow, which had been so bright only ninety minutes earlier was now a dark gray. It was so dark that you would have trouble recognizing a face at 10 feet.
We put the kids to bed and then I returned outside to attempt to photograph the eclipse. I decided against setting up our telescope due to the temperature. I didn't have much success with my cheap digital point-and-shoot camera. The autofocus couldn't decide what to focus on and I couldn't change apertures or speed. However, among about sixty fuzzy blob pictures were two that were interesting enough to forward to you. One shows the moon in full eclipse flanked by Regulus and Saturn. The moon is clearly copper-red in the photo. The second photo more clearly shows orange-red lunar surface detail and a bright overexposed limb as the moon comes out of the eclipse.
I returned outside after midnight to a much different scene. The Moon was now high in the sky near the meridian and blazing in full glory. I had to work to find even the most familiar constellations and the dark sky starfield we had enjoyed only a few hours earlier was completely gone. The snow glowed white and it was bright enough to comfortably read a book outdoors. It appeared to be the brightest full moon I had ever seen. I recall the same impression the last time I observed a lunar eclipse, about four or five years ago.
What I appreciate about observing lunar eclipses is the opportunity to see the lighting changes over the course of the eclipse. It normally takes almost a month, of course, to observe the cycle from full moon to new moon and back to full moon again. By seeing only a small change from day to day, the differences between full and new are not nearly as clear or dramatic as when you can observe the cycle over just a few hours.
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Reports from Around the USA
During the eclipse, I called my friend Mike who was in Florida on business. He reported that his view was completely clouded out. I heard a similar report from California. Meanwhile, we received great reports from other "cloudy weather" locales. Looks like the LORD decided to grant us winter weather types a clear view! Here's a report from Sharon in New Jersey....
I had given up on the eclipse when I heard our weather forecast (snow), but thank the Lord, it cleared up beautifully. My neighbor and I enjoyed watching the last part of the penumbra and beginning totality stages, before getting too cold and going inside.
Our friend John the Jesus Geek in Upstate New York had detailed blog and video coverage with images at his web sites:
http://www.godtube.com/JesusGeek (videos) and http://www.jesusgeek.info
Then there was this report from the Kendrick family in Minnesota. You all remember them as the family of "Holly's Comet" fame....
We had prayed for clear skies back when you started reminding us to. God listened and gave us a beautiful night. It was very, very cold, but there was no wind so we were able to stay out a couple minutes at a time. It was amazing to see! We have looked at the moon many times with binoculars before, but looking at it during the eclipse was really awesome. It seemed like a completely different object out there, like we were looking at a new planet!
 We had absolutely clear skies, so it is truly a wonder to see. We have done most of our watching from in the house, but we've gone out and braved the cold night a few times to get a good look with the binoculars and to try to snap a few pictures. It is currently -12 degrees, so it's pretty hard to stay out there longer than a couple minutes even when we're all bundled up.
Just this morning in our family Bible reading, we read in Revelation about the moon turning to blood. Seeing the moon tonight is quite a sight after reading that just this morning!
For more about lunar eclipses and "signs of the end times" check out the Update article....
Lunar Eclipse -- the Sixth Seal?
For many more articles about the Moon and other topics from Classical Astronomy, be sure to visit our Astronomy Topics archive.
The skies were also clear to our north, as we see from this wonderful montage from the Sikkema family, who sent along some spectacular images from last year's August lunar eclipse....
This was taken from my backyard in St. George, Ontario, Canada. The partial phases were taken at 1/200 sec (about 1 hour before and after totality) and the total phase was taken at 2.5 sec both at F/11 with a 300 mm lens on a Canon EOS Digital Rebel X. My children watched from inside our home since it was -13°C (8°F).
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Have you joined the Classical Astronomy Yahoo group? Chat with other Christians about astronomy, homeschooling, science, just about anything.
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So even though us cold winter "cloudy weather" types got a rare look at a winter eclipse, we also heard some good reports from the usual warm and sunny locales. After offering an initial cloud report, Jim from California wrote back to offer this....
As it turned out....after I left you that e-mail yesterday just before leaving work, when I got outside I discovered that the wind was blowing hard from the west (Pacific Ocean) and the sky was clearing out. By the time the moon was rising we had nearly clear skies and a beautiful night to observe the eclipse. It was as if God was blowing out the clouds just so we could observe His special event and then after it was over the clouds found their way back. It was definitely an answer to prayers for clear skies. I don't believe for a moment that is was just a coincidence.
As we made our errands last night we took many occasions to stop and view the eclipse's progress. I always keep a good pair of binoculars in my van for just such occasions and I had several opportunities to allow others gathered around also viewing the eclipse to enjoy it even better by being able to view through the binoculars.
I am so thankful that our Father was gracious enough to allow us to see the eclipse since my wife and I really enjoy that kind of thing. I am glad you were also able to enjoy it.
We also got this funny report with a pic from Natalie in California....
It was really funny, I had completely forgotten about the eclipse, and when the moon started to rise it looked like there was a cloud in front of it. But as it continued to rise the "cloud" stayed with it! My mom and I were thinking there was something very strange going on, but couldn't figure it out. So I got my camera out and took some pictures thinking I would send them to you to see if you could figure it out. It wasn't until we were all eating dinner that mom realized it was an eclipse. I had a DUH moment! Because the last eclipse was so early in the morning, I had assumed that this one would be too, and they we'd all miss it.
After dinner I put my telescope in the sewing room because I didn't want to go outside. (Yeah, us Californian's are real wimps when it comes to cold!) That's when I decided to see if I could take picture through the telescope.
I was hard getting everything figured out so that the camera would focus correctly, but I finally fugured it out. When the moon got too high, I decided to move the telescope outside anyway. By that time the moon had reached totality, so I did the dishes while I waited for the telescope to adjust and the moon to come back out. My best pictures came out after the moon started to come out again. I hope you enjoy them as much as I had taking them!
The following report and pic are from Ranee in Alabama....
 We are in Prattville, AL, just north of Montgomery. We were unfortunately not at home during the first part of the show, so these are coming up on totality (if I remember rightly!) and coming out of totality. The colors are different because I was messing the whole time with the camera settings; I think the bottom photo is truest to the real thing. The angles are a little different because of how I had to place the camera relative to the telescope, which is an 8" Dobsonian. I have no set-up for astrophotography, so just put my little point-and-shoot digital camera on a tripod and snugged it up close to the eyepiece.
Many thanks to everyone who sent reports and pix! Hope everyone got to see it because there won't be another one visible over North America unitil 2010.
Coming in future Classical Astronomy Updates:
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The Feast of Easter, when many Christians celebrate the LORD's resurrection, will fall on March 23, nearly the earliest possible date. This is a very rare event since Easter will not fall this early again for another 152 years!
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Continuing with our "Pagan Influences?" series, we'll delve some more into the misconceptions and "urban legends" over the supposed pagan origins of the Christian celebration of Easter.
Til next time, God bless and clear skies!
-jay
The Ryan Family
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
- Psalm 8:3,4, a Psalm of David
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