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Lunar Eclipse October 17 12:00 GMT

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the coming-to-a-store-near-you dept.

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.'"

5 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. More information about eclipses of the Moon by saskboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    "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.
    1. Re:More information about eclipses of the Moon by Wornstrom · · Score: 2, Informative

      actually, (in the northern hemisphere) the winter solstice is Dec. 22, first day of winter (shortest day of the year), and the summer solstice is Jun 21, the first day of summer (longest day of the year). link The equinoxes are the times of the year where the day and night are closest to equal. The Mayans built and aligned the pyramid at Chichen Itza based on the equinoxes to create a tribute to the god Quetzalcoatl, represented by a serpent. On the equinoxes, the sun casts shadows and triangles of light which are supposed to look like a diamondback rattlesnake. 'nother link

  2. Re:Now I finally ask my stupid,: answer by saskboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  3. Re:Welcome to modern times. by BobNET · · Score: 2, Informative

    But people still get excited when the moon gets dark for a few seconds.

    Consider the distances involved: a 12800km wide object is almost completely blocking the Sun from reaching a 3500km wide object that is 400000km away. The fact that this happens at all is the reason some of us are excited.

    And although this is a partial eclipse, it's going to last more than "a few seconds". Probably closer to an hour...

  4. Re:I need a question answered thats been bugging m by Old+Wolf · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.