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Lunar Eclipse October 17 12:00 GMT
saskboy writes "Space Weather gives viewing instructions for tonight's partial lunar eclipse. 'According to folklore, October's full moon is called the "Hunter's Moon" or sometimes the "Blood Moon." It gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. The Hunter's Moon of 2005 is due on Oct. 17th.'"
"The full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox (first day of fall) is known as a Harvest Moon. Due to the low angle of the ecliptic to the horizon, the moon rises only about 30 minutes later each night around a harvest moon as apposed to the normal 60 minutes later each night for the other full moons in the year."
Harvest Moon
It should also be noted that the only night a lunar eclipse can take place is on a full moon. Otherwise the earth cannot project a shadow onto the moon.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
is the second of two full moons occuring in a single month... so they do happen
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It's 2005. Why are we getting all giddy over a stupid eclipse? They're a fairly regular occurance. Why dont' we also get excited about a full moon? The only difference between the two is that one happens more or less every month and the other happens more or less every year.
This is the equivalant to a FOX news "news *ahem*" story.
Yeah, yeah, I know about Google and Wikipedia.
A somewhat common misconception is that the moon is dark in places because the earth is shading it. This is NOT the case!
This can be seen with a flashlight and a few balls you have laying around. Put the flashlight in the middle, and shine it at the earth and moon balls. You'll see the side of the ball facing away from the sunlight will be dark. If the moon is to the left of the earth, at a 90 degree angle to the sun, then people on earth will only see half of the Moon.
An eclipse is the rare occurance of the moon being in [nearly] perfect alignment with the earth and the sun. Instead of the shadow being caused by a lack of sunlight being available, to shine on the surface, it's the earth that is passing in front of the moon.
There's also something called "earthshine" [slashdot.org had a story the last week on this]. It's sunlight from the earth that lights up the moon when it would otherwise be completely dark in a region that has no direct sunlight.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
You get to see the whole friggin eclipse! Meanwhile, those of us less fortunate ones on the East Coast have to look for it at moonset!
Hah! You were poised to flame me for confusing the solar eclipses with lunar eclipses, weren't you? Admit it!
A friend and I had an argument about the orientation of the moon. I believe that the same side of the moon always faces the earth. He believes that the same side of the moon always faces the sun, and that the dark side never gets light. Who's right?
Thanks for letting me know about these unpredictable events, I mean it's truly shocking in this day and age we cannot predict eclipses.
/. news for joe public posted by incompetent admins (sign)
Tell me, will this momentus event be preceeded by a sunset and folowed by a sunrise?
(sign)
You are. It's called tidal locking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
I guess you whipped out your sextant this morning and realized there'd be an eclipse at 1200 GMT? Moron...
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Major celestial coincidence: 0
A somewhat common misconception is that the moon is dark in places because the earth is shading it.
Wow. Have these people never looked at the moon during the daytime?
Or, to the GP, has he not noticed that solar eclipses occur at new moon?
We see the sun with a bite of blackness.
BTW why do you call it a "flashlight" ? It doesn't flash.
The same side always faces the Earth, this is due to an effect of Earth's gravity on it. This implies that a "day" on the moon is 29 Earth days, ie. if you had a house there it would be sunny for 2 weeks and then dark for 2 weeks.
In the common expression "dark side of the moon, "dark" means "unknown", because we can never see it so we have no idea what is on it. It doesn't refer to whether the sun is shining on it.
In the common expression "dark side of the moon"
"There is no dark side of the moon, really...as a matter of fact it's all dark."
(from Pink Floyd, natch.)
Bunch of craters named after Russians, IIRC.
Now, if you'll excuse me I have to watch The Wizard of Oz with this cool new soundtrack...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Flashlight is the terminology used in Western Canada and I assume most of North America, instead of the more European "torch", which we know as a burning stick. A flashlight does flash if it's moved about, it looks like a flashing light in the distance from the movement of being carried.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
It was a partial lunar eclipse, not the full monty. The max size of the shadow of the Earth on the Moon was predicted to happen around 8 AM EST, and really just a small bite at that. Moon set was about 7:45 AM EST, local time. Oddly, though one might expect the orange hue due to being on the horizon, and due to light filtering through the Earth's atmosphere onto the Moon like a million sunsets at once. These effects were quite apparent at the last full lunar eclipse visible in these parts. However, none of that was apparent this time. Perhaps the rising Sun washed it out.
-- Stephen.
You do know we send multiple probes around it and radar mapped it and took pictures.... right? and your ID is so low too.
It's clear and beautiful here and I now live in a place with an unobstructed view of the sky. Perfect! Now, let's see... what time do I have to get out there... 12:00 GMT, October 17... The 17th?! D'oh!
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