NAM logo, by David Le Conte

Visible and thermal images of some lunar eclipses

C.J. Baddiley

Thermal images of the lunar eclipse of 1989, are presented here. The imaging system used was a 10 micron wavelength thermal imaging common module (TICM), using a 0.5 metre aperture x5 afocal converter and a x12 telescopic lens. The TICM scanner used anamorphic optics to enhance resolution.

Some frames from the video recording were digitised. Since original publication, a frame was processed using specifically written software on a domestic computer, to de-stripe the background and then correct the lunar image. Edge filtering was used to suppress the background, and to enhance the lunar hot spots. The maximum contrast image occurs shortly after totality. The hot spots are boulder strewn craters and previously sunlit exposed crater walls.

Visible images of some lunar eclipses since then are shown.

Maintained by Ian Howarth