Hello Fellow Astronuts,

February 9th, I.Y.A., Sonepat,

As the sun set on the western horizon, simultaneously the
light crimson Moon rose in the serene blue sky on the eastern horizon over the
Yamuna, as can only happen on a full moon night. 9th February,
however was a special full moon, the deepest Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2009
scheduled to occur just after moonrise. Three chasers from Eclipse Chasers
Athenaeum (Ajay Talwar, Vikrant Narang, Pankaj Sharma) had gathered on the
terrace of DPS Sonepat to watch the moonrise and
subsequently get eclipsed. They were ready with their telescope, cameras and
internet connection to webcast the Lunar Eclipse live to the members of Eclipse
Chasers Athenaeum living all over India.

A Penumbral Lunar
Eclipse is just a subtle shading of the full moon, as the Moon just enters the
penumbra part of the Earth¢s shadow. This kind of eclipse is different from a
Total Lunar Eclipse, where the Moon goes fiery red in the middle of the
eclipse. At Sonepat, a few minutes after the moonrise, the Lunar Eclipse began,
but was only discernable after about 30 minutes had passed. A subtle shading on
the northern part of the Moon barely visible to the naked eye, but when
captured through a camera, at the right exposure is dramatically different. It
was Sheridan Williams (An eclipse chaser from UK) who first noticed the grey
shading while watching the webcast sitting right at home. The shading grew more
and more till the maximum eclipse at 20:08 IST.

Another demonstration team of 10 astronomers from SPACE had
gathered at Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi to project the webcast on a large
screen in the lawns of Teen Murti Bhawan. While the Observation team had
selected a place away from the big city lights to capture the subtle eclipse in
better conditions, the demonstration team had selected Nehru Planetarium and was
equipped to show the Lunar Eclipse to a large number of people. It was an
eclipse observation open for all public. While the astrologers went about their
usual way, predicting disasters for all and sundry, on television channels,
about 50 members of public and amateur astronomers, gathered at Nehru
Planetarium to see the eclipse and celebrate the nature¢s spectacle with
distribution of sweets. Astronomers know that it¢s a long way to go before all
the eclipse superstitions, myths and misconceptions start breaking up in the
minds of a common man. Astronomers are a patient lot and ready to take one step
at a time. Media can certainly help dispelling these evil myths concerning
eclipses.

Weather turned cloudy, and slowly it became overcast, but
not before the maximum eclipse and not before all the Eclipse Chasers had
managed to show the eclipse to all at Nehru Planetarium and also photographed
it.

This was the second of six eclipses (Solar & Lunar)
scheduled to occur in the year 2009. Next one is another Penumbral Lunar
Eclipse on July 7th, 2009 and thereafter the Greatest Total Solar
Eclipse of the 21st Century on July 22nd, 2009.

Eclispe Chasers Athenaeum has been formed to facilitate
information about eclipses, webcasting eclipses for members and all other
eclipse related things. For more information visit www.eclipsechasers.org

Ajay Talwar




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