Stellarium

Brief large change in moon magnitude - is it real?

Asked by John Smart

Using Stellarium 0.18.0 to simulate upcoming (2019-01-21) lunar eclipse. At end of totality, following are magnitude values I am being shown:

01:42:18 -1.07
01:42:19 +1.65
01:42:20 +0.15
01:42:21 -0.61
01:42:22 -1.13
01:42:23 -1.53
01:42:24 -1.84
thereafter increasing, as one would expect (totality has ended)

If I use J and L to decrease / increase time counter then I see rapidly changing values for magnitude around 01:42:19, with magnitude changing to +7 or so, very briefly.

I can't think why the moon's magnitude would really change drastically for a moment. Is this phenomenon real?

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Best gzotti (georg-zotti) said : 		#1

No, this numerical data is not real but a computational artefact. Does anybody BTW have a good paper on eclipse brightness?

I still suggest you update to the current 0.18.3. This does not fix the issue, but has a better umbra border.

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John Smart (john.s) said : 		#2

Thanks. I did install 0.18.3 and I think I see what you mean about the umbra border.

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John Smart (john.s) said : 		#3

Thanks gzotti, that solved my question.