October 18, 2013

Blackheath Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Event

Report by: Christina Chester

Blackheath Crowd and Telescopes

As darkness fell on Friday the 18th October, Flamsteed members were joined by the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers and members of Romsey Astronomical Society at Blackheath for our monthly ‘Stargazing’ session. This month was particularly special as the BBC Sky At Night team were there to film part of the next programme. Wrapped up warmly, a large group gathered upon what is a rather exposed Blackheath Common in growing anticipation to see the penumbral lunar eclipse due to take place that evening at around 10.50pm.

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon but the three celestial bodies do not align perfectly and consequently almost form a straight line. As the Moon travels around the Earth, it passes through the outer part of the Earth’s shadow known as the Penumbra. A slight darkening to part of the Moon’s surface can be observed with just the naked eye, though there were plenty of telescopes, binoculars and cameras set up that evening all ready to capture this fantastic astronomical event taking place.

Throughout the early part of the evening, we were teased by the Moon as it peeked through the clouds, momentarily unveiling itself. Each time, there was a gasp and a quick shuffle as people dashed to align their equipment. The lack of Moon didn’t deter the Sky At Night team, amongst those were Chris Lintott, Lucie Green, Pete Lawrence and Jon Culshaw, who continued to film various sections for the programme. Jane Fletcher, the series producer, had a plan in place and if anything, it was great to observe her meticulously ensure everything went underway efficiently.

By 11pm, there was still no hope of the blanket of thick cloud that had formed over us dispersing. Luckily for us, Planetary Scientist Katie Joy was also in attendance and she had brought along with her a meteorite sample from the Moon. It was cushioned with tissue paper and kept in a small glass container that she kindly let us pass around and hold. What a result – we were over the moon with this!

Filming finished at 1am just as the heavens opened and it begun to drizzle. By this time new friendships had formed amongst the societies gathered and everyone had great fun. It was time to head to bed, to warm up, content in the prospect that we had played a small part in the Sky At Night.

The programme will go on air on Sunday 3rd November on BBC1 at around midnight. The extended 30 minute programme will be aired on Thursday 7th November on BBC4 at 7.30pm.

You may already be aware that there is talk of the BBC cancelling the Sky At Night at the end of this year. The BBC have stated that there are discussions about the future of the programme. An online petition which at the time of writing has achieved over 52,000 signatures, is urging the BBC not to axe the programme. A link to the petition is here: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-bbc-please-do-not-axe-the-sky-at-night