On 21/01/2019 00:35, RichA wrote:
Funny, they hold an observing session at a city park, just days
before a total lunar eclipse! Why not hold it DURING the eclipse?
They might even have seen a couple deep-sky objects when the thing
was full. Talk about not taking advantage of a good situation! What
better way to capture the public's imagination (which these things
are for)?

Oh I don't know - first quarter to gibbous moon is quite good for a
public viewing night. Much less chance of people tripping up in the dark
and the moon always looks impressive even with light pollution.

The timing would be better for a public viewing event in Toronto than it
was in the UK where you needed to get up at 3am to see the whole thing.
I can't see many members of the public doing that!

Large parts of the UK were clouded out. I wasn't. Eclipse didn't seem
anything like as deep as the previous one a few years back with upper
limb edge of the moon remaining white even at the deepest point. It was
fun having Praespe nearby in the same field for wide field binoculars.

Skies were good with some haze and plenty of 5th magnitude stars visible
at the deepest eclipse. Increasing moonlit haze as dawn approached hid
everything fainter than 3.5 magnitude towards the final stage.

Heavy frosting made observing a little unpleasant slippy under foot and
required thawing out equipment and observers from time to time.

RASC Toronto Centre ‏ @RASCTC Jan 15

Unfortunately we are a NO GO for tonight's (Jan.15th) City Star Party
at Bayview Village Park. We will try again on Thursday, Jan. 17th.
@rasc #RASC #citystarparty #bayviewvillagepark



--
Regards,
Martin Brown