Slashdot Mirror
Full Lunar Eclipse for North America
tech81 writes "MSNBC is reporting that all of North America will experience a full lunar eclipse on January 20, which also happens to be the first full moon of the new year. Check out the article at MSNBC Space News."
IIRC there is another total solar eclipse in the US from north to south in 2026. It will roughly follow the Mississippi river I believe.
:-) That eclipse goes west to east pretty much across the whole country.
The 2017 eclipse should be good. August is a great month in Oregon, and I may climb Mt. Jefferson that day.
Here's more on the subject.
Astronomy magazine
check it out, but do dress warm.
photosMy Photostream
>a full lunar eclipse on January 20, which also happens to be the first full moon of the new year.
I thought this was no coincidence, that a full lunar eclipse was only possible when the moon is on the far side of the earth from the sun, which is when it appears full. no? astonomers care to comment?
Flamebait, but I won't bite. Ever learned how to read? I was talking about South America.
I just want to say that I have to agree with you. But if you want to see a total solar eclipse, you should plan on travelling to go see one.
I've seen several total lunar eclipses, and partial solars, but only one total solar eclipse (this one last summer on 8/11, from Hungary.) There is absolutely no comparison as to the profound effect seeing the sun blotted out and replaced with a glowing circle of white fire had on me, versus the mere curiosity of the lunar and partial solars. I can only describe the total eclipse in such superlatives as: a religious experience, an epiphany, or orgasmic. It literally left me trembling in awe and questioning my own place in the universe.
As for the total lunar eclipses, and partial solars, I would describe them in terms such as: Hey that's cool, the moon is red! or, Wow pretty neat, if I look at the sun's shadow there is a bite taken out of it!
If you wait for the total solar to come to you, who's to say you won't have cloud cover that day, or perhaps smog if you live in Southern Cali. Find a listing of total eclipses and choose one soon that will pass over a location you would like to trave to anyway. It may take a couple of tries, but eventually you will be treated to the experience of a lifetime.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
This could be funny. Go and see how many people you can convince that the Moon is crashing from a Y2K bug.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
How does that work? X-rays pointing through the ground?
During a full moon, which is necessary for the eclipse, the side of the earth where it is night is the same side that can see the moon.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
It would disprove their theory if it actually happened, which I seriously doubt. The moon remains the same size in the sky.
To test this, hold a dime a certain length away from your eye when the moon looks big, so that it just covers it. Then hold it the same distance away when it looks small, and it'll still just cover the moon.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
Don't worry, the temperature does drop slightly during the eclipse and during totality the amount of harmful UV is significantly reduced. It will be safe for you to come outside and watch the next one, even in So. California.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Located about 13 million light-years from Earth, NGC4214 (a galaxy) is currently forming clusters of new stars from its interstellar gas and dust.
Excuse me, alleged science journalists: whatever we're seeing in NGC4214 happened 13 million years ago. Not my definition of "currently," although it maybe explains certain software companies' definition of "we'll be coming out with a new version Really Soon Now."
Of course, it might still be "currently" making new stars (right, Mr. Einstein?), but we can't see it.
Didn't the mexicans attack the Alamo during a full lunar eclipse?
---
I guess the full moon was just not Y2K complient in North America. A programmers team is working on this issue and a patch will be released soon.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
Yes, all lunar eclipses occur when the moon is full. Think of it this way, the only way that the earth can block the sun's light from getting to the moon would be if the sun was at 6-O'clock, and the moon was at 12-O'clock (using that crazy military reference where 6-o'clock is exactly behind you and 12-o'clock is exactly in front of you).
The greatest irony is that the moon is at it's fullest at precisely the time that we can't see it. When it is totally eclipsed.
Ignore Alien Orders
unfortunately, that seems the be the closest (and soonest) before 2050
but on 23Sept2071 there's one thru baja somewhere
i got this data from http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.g ov/eclipse/SEmap/SENorAm.html
If the atmosphere is all full a volcanic ash, or smoke from big forest-fires etc., then the light of the moon would greatly diminish.
Every new-moon has the potential for a solar eclipse, and every fullmoon for a lunar one. However, given that the moon is pretty small compared to earth, during solar eclipses, the shadow of the moon might miss the earth completely. The moon is not that lucky to get out earth's shadow. Therefore, more lunar eclipses are visible than solar eclipses. For the folk on the moon, our lunar eclipse is a solar eclipse, and our solar eclipse is, errr, terra eclipse perhaps.
Excuuuuse me? What in the world does it mean for a lunar eclipse to be ``in (for) North America''?
This would make sense for a solar eclipse, since solar eclipses are very localized, but a solar eclipse happens at the new moon, whereas a lunar eclipse happens at the full moon (for obvious reasons).
A lunar eclipse is visible throughout the hemisphere where it is night (which, of course, is the same as the hemisphere where the moon is visible, since the moon and the sun are in opposition), so at best the ``north'' in ``North America'' is out of place.
This fact (that lunar eclipses are visible from half the world whereas solar eclipses are visible from such a small region) makes lunar eclipses seem much more common than solar eclipses; in fact, the contrary is true. The last total solar eclipse in the world was on August 11, 1999 in Europe (I was there), and the next one is next year in Madagascar.
Dear God:
This is to notify you that your program entitled 'full-moon screen saver' has a rather severe cosmetic Y2K bug in it. As a result, on January 20'th of your year 2000, the full moon will experience color and brightness difficulties that significantly deviate from the published standard. Our analysts believe there is even a chance it may turn red, a widely touted feature of your 'shutdown/halt' program, possibly causing confusion among your users.
We strongly encourage you to correct this problem at your earliest convenience.
Y2K Watchdog committee
For all of you that work in an NT shop, all you need to do is tell your boss that if you don't switch over to Linux before January 20, you'll make the moon disappear. Who knows, it might even work.
On another, related front, I've found that astronomical events make great times to get with your significant other and spend some quality time...
I'm not interested in this full moon eclipse unless the moon will be big and bright enough that you could drive without headlights. With a fresh coat of snow and a full moon, you can almost do this in Minnesota already, but...
I understand that the Druids used a lunar eclipse to make a sneak attack on Crazy Horse, shortly after he used the light of an unusually bright moon the previous month to defeat George Washington's army at the battle of Waterloo. They went on to build the Great Wall of China, before finally settling in what's now called Venezuela, but I could be wrong -- there seems to be a little too much historical confusion about celestial events as of late... :-)
--
--
E2 IN2 IE?
The next total solar eclipse won't be seen in North America till 2017. The path of totality will cross,northern Oregon first, and then head down in a general southeast direction through parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nth Carolina, Georgia, to finally leave the continent from South Carolina, between Charleston and Georgetown, and continue on down towards the south Atlantic.
This will truly be an exciting night! I suggest everyone emails every person they know with this amazing news!
Next total solar eclipse visible from the United States: 21 August 2017. If you live in California, you'll have to go to Oregon to see it (assuming that Oregon's that state north of California, my US geography is not too good)
Then there's a total solar eclipse visible from Texas to the Great Lakes on 8 Apr 2024.
A third American total solar eclipse is on 12 Aug 2045, visible from northern California to Florida.
There's more, but it's pointless posting those because you won't be around in 2078 or 2099 to see those ones (unless you're a Montgomery-Burns-style head-in-a-jar-of-liquid then...)
As for total lunar eclipses, I'll give details of upcoming total eclipses by naming the dates and the approximate position of the point of the Earth's surface that's directly overhead at maximum eclipse:
For the Americans, who are the majority of the Slashotters, these total lunar eclipses should be visible at some point in the night in question:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke