MnAstro Forums

Hello all,

We are hosting a special Beginner's group event on Sunday May 15th for the Total Lunar Eclipse.

We will meet up that evening at 7:30pm at Metcalf Field at Belwin Conservancy.

Details for Sun. May 15th Total Lunar Eclipse: (from timeanddate.com)

Moonrise is at 8:23pm CT (declination -19°36' / azimuth 117°39')
Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 8:32pm CT
Partial Phase Begins: 9:28pm
Total Phase Begins: 10:29pm
Max. Eclipse: 11:11pm
Total Phase Ends: 11:54pm
Partial Phase Ends: 12:55am
Penumbral Phase Ends: 1:50am

This is about as good timing as we can have for a lunar eclipse prior to a workday!!

For more information about the eclipse, see here: https://www.space.com/total-lunar-eclip ... g-may-2022

Everyone is invited, there is no charge to attend and kids are welcome! Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Also, bring a few extra clothing layers in case temps dip at night. We will have telescopes on hand for people to look thru, but if you have a telescope or binoculars, bring them too!

Directions to Metcalf Field: (see this Google Maps link): https://goo.gl/maps/UNkt67YPWg4qAjuP6

Metcalf Field GPS Coordinates: 44.93734 N / 92.82157 W

For more information on Metcalf Field, see here: http://www.mnastro.org/facilities/metcalf/

Directions:
Head east past Woodbury on I-94 to the Manning exit (exit 253). Turn south and then take the first left onto Hudson Road S. Continue east about 1.5 miles and turn right onto Indian Trail. Check your odometer here, and then travel 1.1 miles. You'll see an unmarked chain-link gate on the right side. This is the entrance to Metcalf field. Enter the dirt path and park on the left side. There are 2 small reflectors on poles marking the entrance. If you have a telescope with you, you can also park on the right (north side) of the field.

If you haven't been to Metcalf Field, it can be a little difficult to locate the entrance. So please plan on arriving in daylight.

Please drop me an email at sureshks1@msn.com so I can keep you up to date on weather-related changes to the schedule. I will make the weather Go/No Go decision on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there!

Suresh

Here's a handy exposure guide for photographing lunar eclipses using an SLR or DSLR camera:

Couldn't make it to the field last night but still managed the capture the start of the full lunar eclipse with my Meade ETX-80, Svbony 105 camera and 0.5x focal reducer. As cheap an astrophotography setup as one can have, but outsized fun

Greetings all,

We had about 65 attendees last night for the Total lunar eclipse viewing party on a beautiful clear night. Alan T. counted around 30 telescopes set up as well. The evening started out with a few minutes of light rain which produced a lovely rainbow in the southeastern sky. We took that as an omen for a good eclipse, and it sure was! It took the Moon about an hour to clear the trees, but once it did we had an unrestricted view of the last 50% of the pre-totality partial phases, all of totality and after. That was one of the darker total lunar eclipses I've seen... probably due to the Moon's low elevation in eastern Libra, but maybe there was also some lingering smoke in the atmosphere from the New Mexico fires. During mid-totality the Moon looked surreal, almost like a charcoal sketch of very dark orange/red and black.

Around 10:30pm we had a Starlink pass in the northeastern sky as well as a very good pass of the ISS high up in the northern sky. A lot of people present had never seen either so that was definitely a highlight.

Most of the crowd was gone by mid-eclipse but a few of us hung around till near the end around 1:00am. It really was a fun night!

Thank you to our volunteers last night: Bernie Stinger, Andy Harwood, Phil Ramsay, Todd Farnham, Dave Falkner, Clayton Lindsay, Alan Touchberry, Steve Baranski, Jason Asper, Paul Gade & Cathy Sidles, Jim Knudsen...

Join us for the next BSIG event at Metcalf Field on Saturday June 11th...

Suresh

Awesome!
That starlink pass was amazing. Even more so watching them zip through the field of my telescope. I’d never seen a set so soon after launch.

Here are a couple of my shots. Nikon D5100 through my Stellarview 105 on a CGEM-II that was not powered. As a result I had some star trails from the 3 and 4 second exposures.

Here's my first lightly-processed pic...

Taken 5/15/22 at 11:14pm CT
Borg 4" f/6.4 refractor on AVX mount
Nikon D7200 @ ISO 250
5-second exposure

Suresh

You caught the Starlink trail! We saw it at ELO too. I wasn't fast enough at calling my wife at home to get out and look at before it faded out in the east. I was happy I could at least show her your picture.