RASC Toronto. Why hold observing nights a week before eclipse??

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)?


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

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

On Monday, 21 January 2019 05:11:59 UTC-5, Martin Brown wrote:
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

Temps in Toronto when the thing reached totality were -20C with a -29C windchill. I observed it from a valley near me that was shielded against the wind at least. The park in question where they were to hold the observing night (I don't even know if it was possible seeing we've had three months of near-solid clouds) is not a dark area by any stretch. It borders a heavily-lit road so no chance of accidents I think. Meanwhile, the same park was host to an eclipse observing night many years ago when it was summer and temps 20C instead of minus 20C. I got to compare a then current TeleVue Oracle apo with a Celestron 70mm fluorite scope.

On Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 5:35:17 PM UTC-7, 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?

One week before an eclipse is odd. Two weeks before an eclipse would at least
get New Moon.

However, this is an observing night *inside the city*, with street lights and
all that. So no deep sky objects whatever the Moon is doing. Probably their star
party was indeed held at the time of the new moon, *out of town*.

As for the eclipse - well, as you note, temperatures were extremely cold in the
Toronto area, so few members of the general public would come to be introduced
to astronomy under such conditions.

So I suspect they know what they're doing.

John Savard