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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.
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.
"Why are we getting all giddy over a stupid eclipse? They're a fairly regular occurance. "
People get excited about things that happen only once a year all the time. *ahem birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas*
Astronomers like any old excuse to get out and look up at things that don't happen every day. The fact that we can predict these things when most people don't know the difference between a protractor and a compass, is, well, impressive. Don't spoil the astronomer's good time by saying it doesn't matter. Lots of things depend on the moon, and having more people focussing on the same good thing at the same time is bound to have positive effects.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.