Time Lapse of Lunar Eclipse

MufasaZX writes "Start with a relatively rare occurrence, the complete lunar eclipse from last Wednesday. Next add the amazingly rare, a perfectly clear fog free night in San Francisco, as viewed from the cliffs overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Then I set up my trusty Sony MiniDV camcorder and wide angle lens on a tripod and proceeded to freeze my butt off for 2 hours. Dump the video into Premier, accelerate it 200x to just 37 seconds, and the resulting video is IMHO simply stunning. Until my web server gets crushed you can download it here, but after that please use your Gnutella client of choice and search for LunarEclipse-10-2004.wmv."

Comments

cross-platform, please?

[kanweg]

an mpeg version is appreciated.

Bert

Re:cross-platform, please?

[ajs]

I'm running the pre-release 5 for 1.0 with all of the codecs that were provided. I don't think I want to go CVS just to view this one file. Perhaps the guy who made it in the first place could just save it in a different format.

It's amazing how similar trying to view videos from a Windows system is to trying to view Word documents... you'd think it was the same monopoly trying to break standards in yet another field... oh wait...

Re:cross-platform, please?

[Anonymous Coward]

And while recompiling it, remember to repeat the Linux mantra:

"Linux is ready for prime time!"

BitTorrent?

[pclinger]

Someone please post up a torrent of this if you get it downloaded.

Re:BitTorrent?

[mdecarle]

/. editors made it impossible to link to file:///c:/con/con in my sig. Please just type it in your browser

And right they are, your website is broken!

Well, it didn't work on W2K + IE6, and file:///c:/CON gave me an 'Open With' dialog box. What program should I use?

Re:BitTorrent?

[paganizer]

I've not only put up a torrent, i've posted it in non-evil formats.
tracker at (until it starts smoking) http://66.38.8.41:6969
ED2K:
ed2k://|file|LunarE clipse-10-2004_DivX.avi|2077802 |8605d30fc200576a8dde819ee6d936c0|/
ed2k://|file| LunarEclipse-10-2004.mpg|5391332|533d 94a75a2e807dccd56a91d40b26cc|/
ed2k://|file|Lunar Eclipse-10-2004.mov|6930342|c712 88ac9c70e7e02b9bb7dc8bc08b44|/
ed2k://|file|Lunar Eclipse-10-2004.wmv|4731422|1840 7e7807f0f841ff0e6be84a397416|/

Slow

[cuteseal]

By the time this gets downloaded, it will be time for the next lunar eclipse...

People People... Coral Cache to the rescue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing works better & faster.

Coral p2p cached version here

Re:People People... Coral Cache to the rescue.

[stu72]

Magnet (Gnutella2) link:

magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:V2N3APWWYTW36GG5ERDTQC24RD WXLI4F.LMAMHDQEYZ43V3PXC23UJTWAQ4FIRN7COL2VFHA&dn= LunarEclipse-10-2004.wmv&xs=http%3A//24.85.233.123 %3A6346/uri-res/N2R%3Furn%3Abitprint%3AV2N3APWWYTW 36GG5ERDTQC24RDWXLI4F.LMAMHDQEYZ43V3PXC23UJTWAQ4FI RN7COL2VFHA

Edonkey 2000:

ed2k://|file|LunarEclipse-10-2004.wmv|4731422|1840 7e7807f0f841ff0e6be84a397416|/

Re:People People... Coral Cache to the rescue.

[baryon351]

Not to be negative, but I'm going to be negative anyway. Wtf is with these coral cache links? has ANYONE managed to get them working quicker than the original site? I'm getting 2.5kb/sec from the original article poster's server while this cache crap is lucky to spike to 500bytes/second.

Is it meant to be a serious caching service? Or are we just slashdotting some poor moron's dsl line here?

wmv

[Anonymous Coward]

hmm...aren't you supposed to post movies in a non-evil format?

Re:wmv

[Hadlock]

video lan client has a great codec for wmv - no problemo. it's what the free MS video editing software saves as for a file anyways. either way, an mp4 format would have been nice.

Re:wmv

[argent]

video lan client has a great codec for wmv

Yeh? Care to tell my copy of VLC where the -ing hell it is?

main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `WMV3'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

(and WM Player on my Mac dropped all but about 12 random frames... yeh, it's only a G4/466 but sheesh, it plays DVDs full screen without complaining...)

Re:wmv

[v1]

WMV3 codec is M$ proprietary, and is ONLY found in the Windows Media Player FOR WINDOWS. Not even the Macintosh release of WMP has this codec. You can also forget VLC, Mplayer, QuickTime, and any other player for that matter. WMP for Windows ONLY.

It never ceases to amaze me how many ppl post videos encoded with this codec, because there are so many ppl out there that have absolutely NO way to view it.

Re:wmv

[wdd1040]

Worked fine in Mplayer with the codec pack on SUSE 9.1.

To all those complaining about speed

[Smerity]

Really, 1 Kbps is not that bad considering it's only a 4 meg file, pretend you're on 56k, or hell, just go outside!

You've got other things to do than read Slashdot... Right? *cough cough*

The moon is a myth!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't let them fool you. The moon is actually a giant man-made light spot to help spy satellites watch your every moves. Lunar eclipses are just a pretext made up to change the batteries.

Re:The moon is a myth!

[Asprin]

Whoever modded this "interesting" I want you in my office NOW!

Coral isn't even working, nor mirrordot!

[notthepainter]

You know, this is getting really annoying. We have the technology available to prevent slashdotting sites yet the editors insist on not using it.

Then again, neither coral nor mirrordot has the movie, so maybe the editors know what they are doing!

Re:Need more speed scotty!!

[metlin]

ARGHHHHHHHH!

Not my fucking day.

http://www.metlin.org/temp_dir/LunarEclipse-10-200 4.wmv

*YES I PREVIEWED IT*

I think my servers have some sense of the future, they don't want to BURNNNN.

And man, I wish Slashdot didn't have the bloody two minute posting limit.

Bzzt!

Re:Need more speed scotty!!

[mrokkam]

On my univ bandwidth:) The Link Enjoy Mohan Yeah...I am up too:p

Dare I say it... there's a mirror here...

[indie1982]

http://lenore.newmeja.com/LunarEclipse-10-2004.wmv

I'll be taking the file down at the end of the day becuase it's a server at work and i'll need the bandwidth back tomorrow ;o)

Good luck!

Rich

Re:Dare I say it... there's a mirror here...

[VGh0st]

After catching a cold because of falling asleep while waiting for the eclipse on the roof of my apartment, I'd really appreciate a fast mirror to watch the whole thing.

Re:Dare I say it... there's a mirror here...

[morbider]

LunarEclipse.mp4 can now be downloaded (2.5Mb). Original WMV converted to Apple Quicktime MP4 format via AVI. Academic hosted server, so bandwidth should be okay. Will have to remove tomorrow (Monday 1st Nov, 1600GMT).

Torrent

[alwsn]

Here it is, hopefully my connection will survie handing out the torrent. here

Re:Torrent

[SelFix]

another one too
LunarEclipse-10-2004.wmv

Hmm not that impressive.

[nekrecart]

Downloaded it from gnutella and sharing. Video is pretty lame. A small dot is just fading in and that's about it.

Re:Hmm not that impressive.

[Lusa]

Should give him some credit. He did the work, froze his butt off (probably in a car though) and it was baseball night! I think he was trying for more of a moon rising over the bridge artistic shot than showing off the eclipse properly but it turned out too dark which is probably due to inexperience.

I'd have tried that with a digital camera using interval shots and a graduated filter to allow better exposure of the ground and maybe keep some of the moons featues visible rather than making it look like a torch pen on the end of a fishing rod.

Still, some credit is due for trying.

Re:Hmm not that impressive.

[Wiwi Jumbo]

While it might not be that great, I took this picture(s) on my balcony in Ottawa. You might like it more.

http://www.deviantart.com/view/11794545/

Set the camera up on a tripod and let it do all the work. :)

Re:Hmm not that impressive.

[Solder Fumes]

That's 100 times better than the stupid video. Great job!

Re:Hmm not that impressive.

[l810c]

Infinately cooler than the video. And it doesn't even move. How many gigs of bandwidth were wasted on the video?

Eclipse of the server

[noidentity]

I'd like to see a video of the eclipse of the server hosting the video of the eclipse. It happened so fast I doubt it would need to be sped up either. Only problem is finding a server to host it, once the server sees the video and cringes.

Here's a torrent

[jerde]

Here's a torrent of the movie.

I hope it gets seeded soon, I'm not sure how long I can keep my copy open.

Re:Here's a torrent

[jerde]

Simply amazing. 100 seconds after posting, the first people started grabbing the torrent. Now 20 minutes later it's fully seeded by dozens of people. Gosh, I love bittorrent.

Re:here is the torrent

[SelFix]

better link -in html :)
http://tornado.ktu.lt:51121/torrents/LunarEclipse- 10-2004.wmv.torrent?2755E9F5E661AD80FFDBE873B7346C BC55875B38

Captured in a single image...

[Animaether]

For those not willing to wait for the movie download, or don't care for a movie, or are waiting for an MPG format version or whatever...

Lunar Eclipse caught in a single image
( Thanks to cozzy for the URL )

Re:Captured in a single image...

[Wiwi Jumbo]

That is truly awesome!!

This http://www.deviantart.com/view/11794545/ (As I've pimped in another post) is what I was able to take from my balcony in Ottawa.

Re:Captured in a single image...

[DarkBlackFox]

Here's a few I took through my 8" reflector scope. Not as good as I'd have liked, but for a little crappy point n' shoot 1.3mp camera, it wasn't bad. Funny thin was a real nice 5mp camera I had ordered the previous week came in the day after the eclipse. If I had that, they'd have been much more impressive. (Apologies for the Earthlink'ed space, but my main server has very limited bandwith.. if anyone feels like mirroring please do.)

Moon 1
Moon 2
Moon 3 (my personal favorite)
Moon 4
Moon 5
Moon 6
Moon 7

Re:Try Gnutella!

[SharpFang]

Downloaded at 40k/sex.

They call it "Freudian typo".

Wide Angle Lens - DOH!

[tcpaulh]

Totally Lame. What's the point of shoting a lunar eclipse at wide angle?

openssl base64 -e LunarEclipse-10-2004.torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is the torrent, base64-encoded. Paste it into a file, and do: sed -e 's/ //g' < file > other_file && openssl base64 -d < other_file > LunarEclipse-10-2004.torrent

ZDg6YW5ub3VuY2U0MD podHRwOi8vdHJhY2tlci55b3VjZWZmLmNvbTo2OTY5L2Fu
bm 91bmNlNDppbmZvZDY6bGVuZ3RoaTQ3MzE0MjJlNDpuYW1lMjQ6 THVuYXJFY2xp
cHNlLTEwLTIwMDQud212MTI6cGllY2UgbGVu Z3RoaTI2MjE0NGU2OnBpZWNlczM4
MDpJv+V7R50e/Q5hT95C wjwhnckAcqinbIgbCqlCjYR4wwMUuuB4RYq7AWWFwfD4
0PC3 SQY5kISxd27sQd6OblUBgIbNcDd8qUCZ3rIu1LFkORhQ2PGXB2 gHnLRyrho4
CkCJ1HyliS7r4SZIrLz4302TIIP5Ncg3Rjb/bw lbNgAMRO5+DM8+rDMcpwTIfU1f
NQLBYgGFdSgp/9p22CJla2 duORmBISnRjVFzK4uDXSTdxubJpA4exksAEK2v7bUd
QHoNc4 iCa++z+/UIKBYjum5slP2Vjc481IWR34ujJvc2lEI+uBDbXdBN tp7KK9/w
VySv8NeF3nW9kfc9cJxxP7zAPr58dOoM+bkQRCG/ tK5QY1HomNZeBTw3IJD/CJG8
D069mZtDh68RzCXYn3dosvll Hlz7CA9Zw0vHCtWiFb2DqyopcYIb4NgzYwBbxoOw
h58M4A6E qoXqbsIqBba9npv83avdcbDiAcPMP1YCZyy7DQsZu9lxS8J3uE zyTWVl

Waste of time

[OldManAndTheC]

Downloaded and watched it. Blurry, indistinct and uninteresting. A complete waste of time. Which of course makes it perfectly appropriate for Slashdot :)

in case you can't get the vid

[LiquidMind]

here's a summary

......oooooo0000000OOOOOOO

Server is down already

[Anonymous Coward]

So heres a summary ......oooooo0000000OOOOOOO0000000Ooooooo......

Good concept!

[Shag]

Kinda need more zoom (500mm is good for most kinds of eclipses, I think), though. A nice telescope with a guider on it would work wonders for this sort of thing.

Another timelapse of the same eclipse, from 2400 miles WSW of San Francisco, is at http://www.astroday.net/LunarEclipse.html in QuickTime format... I hope my friend doesn't mind the slashdotting. Still not much in the way of telephoto or zoom, but nifty cloud patterns and stuff.

Even rarer...

[rirugrat]

Start with a relatively rare occurrence, the complete lunar eclipse from last Wednesday.

Even rarer...the Boston Red Sox won the World Series!

(Does anyone have a BitTorrent of THAT?!?)

Another HTTP Mirror

[tidewaterblues]

Here is another mirror, for those who care to use it.

Re:Another HTTP Mirror

[tidewaterblues]

Oh, and one of that QT movie too.

The moon, eh? :-)

[Compact Dick]

The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth -- by 70%

It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)

Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.

Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!

Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.

Re:The moon, eh? :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

I simply refuse to put up with limp, Satanic, fellow-travelling shit like this piece of sub-human garbage in your pewling, idiotic post[?]:

"Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) "

Let's count the errors, shall we?

• The Earth does not "rotate". If it did, we would all be blown around ten ways to Tuesday by the winds created.
  
• If the Earth did rotate, then one would expect to see tornadoes in the area at the centre of rotation. This would imply that Kansas is the centre of the Earth, a thought pleasing to my personal sympathies, but contradicted by scripture. There has never been a tornado in Jerusalem
  
• Joshua asked Our Lord to stop the Sun, you ignorant asshole, not the Earth. What possible good would it have done to stop the Earth from moving?
  
• Your blasphemous statement that the Moon "reflects" light from the Sun directly contradicts Genesis 3:16, in which it is made perfectly clear that "he created the moon, that the slimy crawling things by night might see". Which part of "he created", don't you understand? Your pathetic advocacy of the fraudulent theory (and it IS a THEORY, not some bourgeois, East-Coast elitist idea of a "fact") is sickening.

Your evil whinings are, quite frankly, tantamount to liberalism.

Interesting, but not great. *Here* is great.

[wherley]

This shot really makes you appreciate the lunar surface and appearance during eclipse.

And this timelapse video shows what can be done in that arena.

Wide angle lens?

[Underholdning]

Why use a 30mm wide angle lens when a 300mm zoom would've been more appropriate?
I've seen the movie, and the other comments are correct - it's just a dot that appears and fades away.
It would have been much better if he'd used a zoom lens, unless I'm missing something?

Re:Wide angle lens?

[elgatozorbas]

It would have been much better if he'd used a zoom lens, unless I'm missing something?

While I agree that the movie could have been better, there is a simple explanation for the lens used (apart from the fact that it may have been the only one available): using a zoom lens would require you to move the camera. While this is a burden to do at night (instead of just letting the camera run on its own), it would also be far from trivial to follow a smooth curve, especially when you don't know exactly where the moon is going. In other words, a zoom lens would have resulted in a very sharp, but very shaky movie. The guy gave it a good shot, next time may be better...

Z

WOAH!

[Sinner]

That is WAY BETTER than the lameass vid that prompted this article. The editors should add it to the blurb.

Re:.torrent

[ceedee99uk]

The BitTorrent protocol was specifically *designed* for the rapid, near-simultaneous distribution of popular files to a large number of users -- who are then able to share them via other methods successfully avoiding the usual /. effect.
Surely that makes sense regardless of the efforts of some university networks and ISPs to prevent the use of torrents?

Don't download this!

[nimid]

It's a waste of 4MB of bandwidth!

The video is so poor, the first time you watch it you stare at a blinking light to the centre right of the screen thinking it's the moon (blinking as an artifact of the timelapse).

Check out the pic someone posted above. It's far more interesting. Link from poster above for convenience: http://www.digitalastro.net/20041027_Lunar_Eclipse _time-lapse.jpg

Re:Try Gnutella!

[TyrranzzX]

Downloaded at 40k/sex.

They call it "Freudian typo".

I'd call it a very expensive hooker myself...

Some "GOOD" Eclipse pictures ...

[Hulkster]

I give the submitter an A for effort, although I prefer the the collection of pictures from space.com and the Astronomy Picture of the Day had a red moon triple and a pumpkin moon that were pretty cool.

And the Hulkster's personal favorite is when he takes a "bite outa the moon" in these lunar eclipse pictures

My contribution to the movies

[LaserBeams]

Last lunar eclipse I took some zoom photos with a makeshift camera/binocular setup, and this time decided to do a sky track, like the original poster. Using thoroughly unimpressive equipment (a 1.3 MP Canon A10 digital camera and tripod) I took 60-some exposures once a minute over the transition from partial to total eclipse.

Here's a short video of my result - it's not as smooth as the original poster's, but it shows the moon a bit better - however please don't expect miracles:

90KB, 572x600, DivX, a few seconds long.

WMV alternative?

[MobyDisk]

The problem is that non-evil formats are either limited or not supported:

• .MOV - Evil: Proprietary and not editable by free software;
• .AVI - Bad; Not-evil, but the format is getting old and limiting. (Support for VBR audio is a bad hack and causes problems)
• .WMV - Evil; A patent-encumbered replacement for AVI
• .MPG - Bad; MPEG-1 is old and inefficient
• .MP2 - Evil; MPEG-2 is patent encumbered
• .MP4 - Good; Standard, less patent encumbered; Limited to MP4+AAC audio (but that isn't too bad); But nobody seems to use this format!

We either need to:

1. Adopt .MP4 and use it
2. Create a non-patent-encumbered .WMV-like format.

torrent available here

[blackburnrovers]

http://bimonscificon.mybttracker.net:6969/torrent. html?info_hash=dabe82a1e8066343fe7683eff6d8412c09d e7af2

Re:bittorrent or edonkey?

[Mardak]

I've not only put up a torrent, i've posted it in non-evil formats. tracker at (until it starts smoking) http://66.38.8.41:6969

Linked for the confused.

http://66.38.8.41:6969/torrents/LunarEclipse-10-20 04.mov.torrent?1B109C9EC2ACA57F8F49D2474C45D103DF3 A88FD http://66.38.8.41:6969/torrents/preview_v02.avi.to rrent?A70DF0962EE22578CA7E71C55E5D7F5076ABE197 http://66.38.8.41:6969/torrents/LunarEclipse-10-20 04.mpg.torrent?7F5313DCB39A9D6732CC2CEE0EBA97B190D D93A2 http://66.38.8.41:6969/torrents/LunarEclipse-10-20 04.wmv.torrent?2755E9F5E661AD80FFDBE873B7346CBC558 75B38 http://66.38.8.41:6969/torrents/LunarEclipse-10-20 04_DivX.avi.torrent?C7457346EACB0711314C72F47A0ABB FDB74F77BA

eclipse through a telescope

[SKPhoton]

I took pictures of the eclipse through a pretty big telescope and they came out quite nicely.
I've put them up here.