Shadow plays

 tl;dr - Between the 25th October 2022 and the 7th November 2022, i.e. in a timespan of only two weeks, our astronomy group witnessed four eclipses. 


Four? Ok, I can imagine your incredulous look, so let's be more specific: It weren't all solar eclipses, just three of them. Even more incredulous now? Stop furrowing your eyebrow and let me walk you through every single event.


25th October 2022: Partial solar eclipse over Bruneck

The weather forecast for the day was good and so we had taken our preparations seriously. We were equipped with several solar eclipse goggles, a solar projector and a binocular with safety filters. By 11 a.m. we had set up a small stand outside the school building, ready to let as many of our fellow students as possible enjoy the show. However, a thick and grey layer of fog stubbornly claimed the lead role for itself. We had to play the waiting game for almost 1.5 hours ere we could eventually start with our observations. Nonetheless for the remaining 30 min we had fun. See for yourself!


Sun is fun

Altogether about 100 students were able to catch a glimpse of the partially eclipsed sun.

A long wait with happy ending


26th November 2022: Two solar eclipses at a glance - on Jupiter


Just one day after the solar eclipse on Earth it was Jupiter's turn. Late in the evening the two Galilean moons Europa and Ganymede were to transit in front of the gas giant and to cast their shadows on its colorful clouds. This autumn the planet was well placed in the night skies of the Northern hemisphere, so this was not the first observation we could tick off, but certainly the most impressive one.


Animated gif of the Europa and Ganymede transits.
Moons on the right, shadows on the left.

Color image taken on the 28.10.22
featuring the GRS, the Great Red Spot.


8th November 2022: Lunar eclipse over Australia


Yes, you heard me right: Australia. True, school regulations do not allow us to travel to the far end of the known world, not even for such a valid purpose, however, by a lucky coincidence we had a special envoy on the spot. Three weeks ahead the event our valued member Gabriel Lercher started his academic year abroad and as you can fancy he was eager to let us know about his adventures amidst kangaroos and emus. So why not planing a 'live coverage' of the eclipse, straight from Brisbane into our classroom?


Waving good bye to Gabriel at the end of the call.

Lunar eclipse from Australia.
Courtesy of Ethan Hensley (Brisbane)


See? Four it was indeed, and the school year is still young ... 😎


Christof Wiedemair









Kommentare

Kommentar veröffentlichen

Beliebte Posts aus diesem Blog

Shooting stars XXL

Bild
 tldr; - For almost a year now, an all-sky camera has been on duty on the roof of our school. It quite reliably captures approximately 5000 black-and-white frames per 24 hours of the sky above Bruneck, South Tyrol. Recently, we started checking the huge dataset for bright meteors, also called bolides. During our first two-hour search run, we found four; two more followed. (Yes, astrocusanus does homework assignments, too 😉.) In 2019 we won the 'Reiff-Preis', a recognition for our year-long efforts in the field of astronomy at school. With the money awarded to us we were able to fulfill a long held dream of an automated all-sky camera (see "Can't take my eyes off you" ). With this new 'toy' we not only hoped to be able to check on the weather without the bother of looking out of the window. We also were eager to begin a hunt for bright meteors, aka bolides. The bolides search team rocks the (overcast 🥺) sky! Alex, Amy, Letizia, Mara & Christof Wiedema...
Mehr anzeigen

Can't take my eyes off you

Bild
 tl;dr - At the end of the school year 2021/22 we installed an all-sky camera on the roof of our school building. For over three weeks now the gadget has reliably delivered live images of the day and night sky. Our main goal is to catch some impressive meteors and bolides. A few weeks ago we were finally able to set an end to a year-long struggle and installed our DIY all-sky camera on the roof of our school building. The first steps of this project were already made back in December 2019, but soon after, the Corona virus made its dreadful appearance on the global stage and the pandemic showed to be a hard-to-shake-off millstone around the neck of the endeavor.  Now, however, we are past the first test phase of the cam and everything seems to run smoothly. Let us get you acquainted with what we have.  We proudly present our all-sky camera!  In the image you see the fisheye lens (Fujinon 2.7mm), the video camera (ASI 174MM) and the Raspberry Pi 4B along with...
Mehr anzeigen

TWAN / The world at night - First part

Bild
 tl;dr - Recently, I decided to share my experience in the field of night photography with my students. Here I present the results of our first excursion, where we targeted Orion, the hunter. In 2018, I decided to give a new hobby a try. Inspired by the work of other TWAN photographers, I started venturing out into the night and taking my first snapshots of the night sky, always along with a nice foreground. Now, in 2023, I deemed the time to be ripe to share my experience with others. Six students of the Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck embraced the opportunity. In the afternoon of 7 December 2022 we had our first meeting, a workshop about the basics of night photography. For over two hours I filled the capacious brains of these youngsters with relevant concepts like polar alignment, guiding, stacking, noise, colour temperature, saturation level, etc. and introduced them to useful apps like Peakfinder or Stellarium .  Painfully aware of this abstract and quite demanding immersion in...
Mehr anzeigen