Super Blue Blood Moon: Did Anyone See It?

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The discussion centers around the viewing experiences of the Super Blue Blood Moon, with participants sharing their observations and frustrations. Many reported cloudy skies obstructing their view, particularly in Sydney and Kolkata, where some only saw a partial eclipse or a bright red tint. Despite the hype, several noted that the moon did not appear significantly larger than usual, attributing size perception to atmospheric effects when the moon is near the horizon. Participants also debated the technical aspects of photography, discussing the limitations of digital zoom versus optical zoom in capturing celestial events. Overall, the thread highlights a mix of disappointment and appreciation for the rare lunar phenomenon.
lekh2003
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I just wanted to see anybody's opinion on the super blue blood moon yesterday night (at least for me).

I couldn't catch a glimpse of it in Sydney since it had been very hot for a few days and clouds had taken over the sky. I could however see an unusually bright red tint in one area of the sky. I was disappointed staying up quite late for it on a school night, but let's hope I can see it next time (2037, I think).

Did anybody see it? Anywhere in the world besides Oceania?
 
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From Kolkata, we had a view of the blood moon, not the super one. The size didn't increase too much.
 
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Wrichik Basu said:
From Kolkata, we had a view of the blood moon, not the super one. The size didn't increase too much.
At least you could see it:frown:. We were supposed to get a full hour of totality only to see clouds.
 
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lekh2003 said:
At least you could see it:frown:. We were supposed to get a full hour of totality only to see clouds.
That's sad. Here also, it was a bit cloudy at first, then it cleared up to give a crystal-clear view. I'll upload the photos here once I copy them from my camera.
 
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I had a pretty good view of the super moon, but there was only a partial eclipse where I live. There weren't too many clouds, but the moon didn't look that much bigger than normal. It seemed bigger the night before (but that was when the moon was lower on the horizon and slightly distorted by the atmosphere)
 
Fig Neutron said:
I had a pretty good view of the super moon, but there was only a partial eclipse where I live. There weren't too many clouds, but the moon didn't look that much bigger than normal. It seemed bigger the night before (but that was when the moon was lower on the horizon and slightly distorted by the atmosphere)
The moon appears larger only when near the horizon, and the size decreases as it goes up in the sky.

Sadly, in Kolkata, we cannot see the horizon - it's only buildings and buildings everywhere. So, the size of the moon was almost the same as any other day.

@lekh2003 Just before the total eclipse started:

image.jpg
 

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Wow, that's a great picture.
 
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From northeastern massachussets, USA We could see it. I do not have a photo though
 
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Greg Bernhardt said:
Ha! I called them out yesterday on one of those photos. The eclipse was NOT visible from England, and yet they included one from the Bristol area.
I researched it further, and the photographer, Tim Graham, tagged his image "Supermoon, January 31st 2018", so I let him off the hook. Being on the horizon, it only looked eclipsed, as it was quite red. [ref]

Nice photo though.

ps. I would probably not have noticed the discrepancy had it not been for a minor argument in the other PF eclipse thread, which prompted me to find out what "Europe" was, and finding out what the total eclipse would have looked like in Moscow, had it not been cloudy.
 
  • #11
lekh2003 said:
I just wanted to see anybody's opinion on the super blue blood moon yesterday night (at least for me).

I couldn't catch a glimpse of it in Sydney since it had been very hot for a few days and clouds had taken over the sky. I could however see an unusually bright red tint in one area of the sky. I was disappointed staying up quite late for it on a school night, but let's hope I can see it next time (2037, I think).

Did anybody see it? Anywhere in the world besides Oceania?
Yep.I saw. The moon was pretty cool.But I noticed a change in the positions of moon. I mean when I saw blood moon ,it was in one position and when I saw full moon ,it was in another position from my place.When it is blood moon ,it looked almost looked like planet Mars.
 
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I saw the whole eclipse except a bit of beginning but I didn't any blood or red colour. It was all white for me.
 
  • #13
Buffu said:
I saw the whole eclipse except a bit of beginning but I didn't any blood or red colour. It was all white for me.
It appeared red just before the total eclipse started. When it was ending, it was completely white.
 
  • #14
The super moon appeared larger than a typical average moon size because it's orbit was closer to Earth than average. That is one reason for its large appearance to the trained observer. The other reason, as I noted the night before, when I viewed it setting on the west horizon, was due to the optical illusion created when you view it just rising or setting on the horizon. It has nothing to due with the atmosphere. It's an optical illusion, and it's closeness to Earth combined with that horizon effect made it appear HUGE, although I recall having seen it bigger many years ago.
 
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  • #15
Wrichik Basu said:
From Kolkata, we had a view of the blood moon, not the super one.
you had a view of both ! ... maybe you don't understand what a supermoon is ??

Wrichik Basu said:
The moon appears larger only when near the horizon, and the size decreases as it goes up in the sky.

that's NOT why it is called a supermoon

Wrichik Basu said:
Sadly, in Kolkata, we cannot see the horizon - it's only buildings and buildings everywhere. So, the size of the moon was almost the same as any other day.

no it wasnt

for a supermoon, its location relative to the horizon is, well, irrelevant ...
It is called a supermoon BECAUSE it is closer to Earth than normal

Dave
 
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Buffu said:
I saw the whole eclipse except a bit of beginning but I didn't any blood or red colour. It was all white for me.

so, unfortunately, you didn't see the eclipse
you must have been outside the eclipse area
 
  • #17
Wrichik Basu said:
......

@lekh2003 Just before the total eclipse started:

View attachment 219495

That's well into the eclipse ( not before it started)

nice pic :smile:
 
  • #18
davenn said:
you had a view of both ! ... maybe you don't understand what a supermoon is ??

that's NOT why it is called a supermoon

no it wasnt

for a supermoon, its location relative to the horizon is, well, irrelevant ...
It is called a supermoon BECAUSE it is closer to Earth than normal

Dave
The picture that I posted was taken with 120x zoom. Compared to the pics in this page (posted in #8), the moon that we saw was quite small.

What we saw was a super moon in the strict sense of the term, but the size didn't increase much.
 
  • #19
Wrichik Basu said:
The picture that I posted was taken with 120x zoom. Compared to the pics in this page (posted in #8), the moon that we saw was quite small.

What we saw was a super moon in the strict sense of the term, but the size didn't increase much.
120x zoom?! What kind of camera were you using, and how many megapixels was the original image?
 
  • #20
lekh2003 said:
120x zoom?! What kind of camera were you using, and how many megapixels was the original image?
It's a Panasonic digital camera. The camera provides 60x zoom, rest was digital zoom in intelligent auto mode.
 
  • #21
Wrichik Basu said:
It's a Panasonic digital camera. The camera provides 60x zoom, rest was digital zoom in intelligent auto mode.
Can you show us the original image?
 
  • #22
lekh2003 said:
Can you show us the original image?
I deleted it after cropping and removing the black sky :frown: that is the one I have. Other pictures without the digital zoom are small buy on the camera, and I have to copy them to the computer.

But you know, digital zoom from a simple digital camera (not DSLR) is not very great in most cases. I've miserable failed before. I took this pic on a tripod, and that's why it looks better.
 
  • #23
Wrichik Basu said:
I deleted it after cropping and removing the black sky :frown: that is the one I have. Other pictures without the digital zoom are small buy on the camera, and I have to copy them to the computer.
Oh, that's ok.
 
  • #24
Wrichik Basu said:
The picture that I posted was taken with 120x zoom. Compared to the pics in this page (posted in #8), the moon that we saw was quite small.

What we saw was a super moon in the strict sense of the term, but the size didn't increase much.

your photo is irrelevant, it given no measurable indication
Wrichik Basu said:
The camera provides 60x zoom, rest was digital zoom in intelligent auto mode.
digital zooms are a waste of time ... a sales gimmick ... they just extrapolate from the real zoom and can never give the quality image that a real zoom can

the moon with a real 60mm or even 120mm lens will have a small image recorded
you need at least 700 - 1000mm focal length to get a decent sized image recorded
1000mm on my Pentax crop sensor DSLR almost fills the frame
1000mm on my canon Full Frame DSLR gives a smaller image, about 3/4 frame
 
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  • #25
davenn said:
digital zooms are a waste of time ... a sales gimmick ... they just extrapolate from the real zoom and can never give the quality image that a real zoom can

the moon with a real 60mm or even 120mm lens will have a small image recorded
you need at least 700 - 1000mm focal length to get a decent sized image recorded
1000mm on my Pentax crop sensor DSLR almost fills the frame
1000mm on my canon DSLR gives a smaller image, about 3/4 frame
I don't know so much about cameras, to be honest. o_O
 
  • #26
davenn said:
1000mm on my Pentax crop sensor DSLR almost fills the frame
1000mm on my canon DSLR gives a smaller image, about 3/4 frame
You're going to need a lot of dough to get those kinds of cameras. We mere mortals have to make do with the marketing gimmicks:bow:
 
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  • #27
lekh2003 said:
You're going to need a lot of dough to get those kinds of cameras. We mere mortals have to make do with the marketing gimmicks:bow:

Don't worry, I'm just a mere mortal as well. I have worked hard to be able to afford them :smile:

but please, never rely on the gimmicks
Wrichik Basu said:
I don't know so much about cameras, to be honest. o_O

that's OK, as long as you are willing to learn, I am willing to teach/pass on what I know ( which isn't everything :wink: )

Dave
 
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  • #28
davenn said:
but please, never rely on the gimmicks
I'm a tech enthusiast and I often dabble in cameras. I hate gimmicks. When I go to electronics stores and hear salespeople giving crazy gimmicks, I absolutely lose it (on the inside).

You will not believe the kind of stupidity I have seen. There is a cable company which makes "Diamond quality" HDMI cables for 300 dollars and they say they have 100x faster speeds which is not possible since HDMI has its own limit, they can diamond stud it for all I care and still have regular speeds. Then there are a plethora of phones which have a dual camera, but one is a placebo. Gimmicks. Gimmicks everywhere.

But I'm going off topic, I'm passionately against people who trick customers.
 
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  • #29
lekh2003 said:
I'm a tech enthusiast and I often dabble in cameras. I hate gimmicks. When I go to electronics stores and hear salespeople giving crazy gimmicks, I absolutely lose it (on the inside).

You will not believe the kind of stupidity I have seen. There is a cable company which makes "Diamond quality" HDMI cables for 300 dollars and they say they have 100x faster speeds which is not possible since HDMI has its own limit, they can diamond stud it for all I care and still have regular speeds. Then there are a plethora of phones which have a dual camera, but one is a placebo. Gimmicks. Gimmicks everywhere.

But I'm going off topic, I'm passionately against people who trick customers.
Well, I would ask for advice from you and @davenn before I buy any electronics in future :biggrin:
 
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  • #30
Wrichik Basu said:
Well, I would ask for advice from you and @davenn before I buy any electronics in future :biggrin:

OK I had to search for some comparison images amongst my photos

these 2 images are just resized for the forum ... no cropping so that you see the actual size of the image captured by the camera

the first image of a lunar eclipse, several years ago
This is with a Pentax, K5 DSLR (crop sensor) and a 500mm lens with a 2 x teleconverter = 1000 mm (equiv to 1500mm on a full frame camera)

A little smaller than I suggested above ... my old memory is getting fuzzy :wink: but you can see it fills a significant portion of the frame

IMGP0070sm.jpg
This next image is from my Canon 6D Full Frame camera with a 400mm lens and a 2 x converter = 800mm ... you can
see that the captured image is significantly smaller ( yes the loss of 200mm accounts for a little of that result, but not all)

IMG_0493sm.jpg
OK a quick explanation of this full frame sensor and crop sensor stuff
it refers to the physical size of the sensor and there are a lot of variations in the size of a crop sensor between manufacturers

A full frame sensor means the sensor capture area is the same size as the old 35mm film frame capture area
A crop sensor (CS) is smaller than a full frame one and as I said, there are variations.

Canon APS-C sensor crop factor = 1.6
Nikon DX, Pentax and Sony APS-C sensor crop factor = 1.5

a visual comparison and you can see several other variations in there ...

crop-factor.jpg


a crop sensor gives the impression of more magnification but in reality, it is just a smaller FOV, Field of View as you can see above

So as I did further up in this post, I was able to give an apparent magnification from the crop sensor compared to the full frame sensor
This is why I said that 1000mm of lens on a crop sensor ( my Pentax) is equal to my full frame Canon with a 1500mm lens on it. Then
we would get the same field of view FOV.

hope that is helpful :)Dave
 

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