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Total Lunar Eclipse This Weekend
SeaDour writes "This Saturday night, March 3rd, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from nearly all inhabited parts of the world. A great shadow will stretch across the surface of the moon, eventually casting it in an eerie red glow as sunlight filters through our atmosphere onto the lunar surface. Viewers in Europe and Africa will have the best vantage point, able to watch the entire eclipse in action, while observers in most of the western hemisphere can see it eclipsed as it rises just after sunset."
What time is this supposed to happen?
Le français vous intéresse?
http://skytonight.com/observing/home/This_Weekends _Total_Lunar_Eclipse.html
http://media.skytonight.com/images/March'07+TLE_l. jpg
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
I for one will have my camera ready, hoping to snatch some nice pictures.
Hey! That's my sig you're smoking there!
The eclipse starts at 3:18 p.m. EST Saturday, with the total eclipse occurring at 5:44 p.m. EST. Look east at sunset. I'll be out there for sure.
The next total lunar eclipse occurs on August 28.
FairTax baby!
I really hope if there is no law now there will be in the future that bans beaming advertisements off stellar bodies. Last thing I want to see through my telescope is 1) goatse and 2) some advert.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
I am curious to see how parts of the third world reacts to an "eerie red" moon rise. Eclipses have prompted some pretty interesting responses in the past.
"Si vis pacem para bellum" -Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
How appropraite since I am having a Space 1999 weekend here after I downloaded all episodes :)
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
It took me a few moments to work out what the Western Hemisphere was. In this context I'm guessing it means "America".
I have already looked at this from the moon, using the truly quite excellent Celestia.
Eclipse shown from the moon (225Kb)
Viewers in Europe and Africa will have the best vantage point, able to watch the entire eclipse in action
Except in the regions around England and the low countries, of course, where it is always clouded.
eventually casting it in an eerie red glow as sunlight filters through our atmosphere onto the lunar surface
It's a red glowing WMD from russia sold to terrorists...
Quuuhhuuuick poke your eyes out or the terrorists will win!
It's gonna be cloudy tonight you insensitive clod!
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Does anyone know where I could find some pictures of the moon passing in front of Saturn on Thursday night? I could see it but had no telescope.
"Total Lunar Eclipse This Weekend a Hoax."
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day has the moon passing in front of the sun, as seen by STEREO.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I had the opportunity to see one while being far from any light polluting city (or even close to any populated area at all). This was during a night orienteering excercise with the finnish army and we're running around in the middle of the night in some godforsaken forest trying to find the checkpoints. It was a very clear night but after a while it starts to get darker and I look up and the eclipse had started (but no one of use knew about it beforehand). Then at the full eclipse it got really pitch dark... you actually couldn't see your hand infront of you.
And I looked up... it was very beautiful. With clear country air, no light pollution and no moonlight my eyes was able to see the stars in the Milkyway and around that you never see otherwise... the sky was really full of them and gave me a whole other sense of scale about our place in the galaxy. That might be the closest thing to go to space one can experience while still staying earthbound. I can imagine standing on the back of the moon watching out would create the same sensation.
So if the weather is clear... don't stay in or near a city if you can get away. It will be worth the trip.
The third world? When I think about countries run by crazy superstitious people, the US is the first place that comes to mind:
As the moon turns red...
"Quick, everyone pray, the rapture is starting!"
"But NASA said it's just..."
"Yeah, NASA also said your grandparents were monkeys. Now get praying, cos God's coming back!"
The Giant divine snake Ketu will start devouring the Moon. Don't eat or cook anything between 2 pm and 8pm CST. Discard all food prepared before the curse of Ketu (cool picture of the very Ketu himself!) . Must take a purifying bath/shower after Ketu disgorges the Moon. Ideally you should write the prayers ( sold here ) to Ketu in a dried palm leaf and tie it around your forehead during the bath. Paper is an acceptable substitute. People who have lost their fathers should do their monthly new moon day ritual after the eclipse is completely over.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
no-one's yet said...
that's no moon...
One thought for a Moon base is to place it at one of the poles. Then solar power can be available all the time so that there is less need for backup power. So, one can figure a limit on a polar base capablility from the duration of alunar eclipse. At a minimum, it has to have backup power to maintain safety to last the duration of an eclipse. If food is grown, it has to be thermally protected or else harvested on the eclipse schedule. Inflated structures have to have sufficient (linked) heat capacity or backup pressure to avoid collapse. It is only 4 or five hours of power loss but it needs to be anticipated.s -selling-solar.html
--
Engage Solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
From the Ocean of Milk, came white elephants, the Goddess of Wealth Lakshmi, the deadly poison etc before the elixir. At that time Devas decided to keep all the elixir for themselves (but that is ok because they are the good guys). Lord Vishnu took the form of a siren and distracted the Asuras. Asuras, being bad guys, were very easily distracted by bewitching female form and went after her. The Devas divided the elixir among them and drank them. But among the Asuras was one named Rahu, who managed to get in the line and drink a portion of it. But before he could swallow it, Vishnu saw what was going on and cut his head off. Thus his body died but the decapitated head remained immortal floating around the heavens. Once in a while when it comes within range of the Sun or the Moon, it will swallow it creating the eclipse. But the Sun/Moon will pass through the open wound in the neck and re-emerge unscathed. That is how eclipses were explained in Hindu Mythology.
Nice story. Lots of interesting details. May be I should form a ReDiscovery Institute and start a campaign to get this theory "equal time" along with other astronomical theories to explain the eclipses. Dover, PA is nearby. Should run for a position in its school board, may be.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Cue up the appropriate soundtrack: Pink Floyd's Obscured by Clouds.
What does that even mean, "visible from all inhabited places on earth"? First of all, I live in Juneau, Alaska, a place which is very much so inhabited (okay, not *very* much so, but certainly inhabited), but isn't going to see the eclipse. Moreover, the west coast of the United States, inhabited by more than thirty million people, won't see it either.
Alaska represent! I'll be yawning during this eclipse. Someone email me a picture.
As I look out of my window in Thurrock (15 Miles east of London), there are not to many clouds in the sky. However, you can rest assured that as soon as they hear about the Lunar eclipse they will be out in force.
Once again Toronto is overcast! I don't remember the last time we had an event like this where we've had clear skies. Damn weather
[alk]
The only sad part is that I don't have a long enough lens for my camera to do it any justice. :(
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Aren't we supposed to sacrafice/convert a Virgin if the moon turns red to make it turn back white? Of course, I forget, this is slashdot so I doubt we will get any help and the moon will remain red, crops will die, the weather will change, the earth warm, the ice caps melt, and the coasts flood.
In years past, virgins were sacrificed. Now they are just "converted" when the moon turns red.... Better get busy as you don't have much time to make the moon turn back white later tonight.
nothing left to do, a total eclipse of the moon...
The show will be effectively over by moonrise here on the Wet Coast. The weather forecast is totally dismal anyway.
Of the last three lunar eclipses visible in these parts, we were clouded out on 16 May 2003, but had fine shows on 28 October 2003 and 9 November 2004. I also saw the eclipse on 21 January 2000 from Toronto, while I was at school. Next for us: 28 August 2007.
I saw my first total solar eclipse last year from Turkey. Even though I knew exactly what was going on, it still gave me the creeps, some sort of "if nothing else makes sense then panic" reaction. It must have scared the crap out of our ancestors.
...laura
We'll miss all of it here in California. The total eclipse happens at 2:45pm PST, and will last about an hour after that. Sunset is at 6pm.
We'll have our turn on Aug. 28, when the tables (and the planet) will be turned. Mark your calender.
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. -Brian Kernigan
Nah, not really, not this time... :)
But I'm betting we'll get one in two or three days!
Not Available in New Zealand!
Dag-Nabbit! Who organised this stupid eclipse?
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
Seriously, while this one made it in time, wouldn't it be possible to put a "astronomy event" tag on submissions in firehose so that those submissions can be treated in priority and make it on time on the frontpage ?
I don't imagine this eclipse snuck up on anybody such that there needs to be an emergency front page post... what's that about "a lack of planning..."?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Navy: Moonrise Calculator:
m l
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.ht
Red Moonrise. Ain't it cool?
~hylas
Almost Forgot ...
... ;-)
Several of these folks talk about the Moon we never knew.
"There is no dark side of the moon really--matter of fact, it's all dark"
Pink Floyd | Black Ops Motto
For your consideration
DL: (222.5 MBs)
http://disclosure.netro.ca/npcc.wmv
Streaming:
http://69.56.146.50/netrostream113/npcc.wmv
Site:
http://www.netro.ca/disclosure/npccmenu.htm
Watch the whole thing.
~hylas
...is probably from the moon. Anyone ever got their flying car? We could maybe take it to the orbiting station and catch a shuttle....no, wait...all that was hype.
:(
Nevermind.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
The sky is actually completely clear at the moment (23:04 GMT, about 10 mins into totality, and in the western suburbs of Oxford), and I have a brilliant view of the moon.
It would be even more be brilliant if I wasn't surrounded by seven sodium-discharge street lamps!
http://membres.lycos.fr/yanu/media/webcam/moon.htm
Plot element in The Man Who Sold the Moon, Robert A. Heinlein, 1951
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
The whole family was interested, but couldn't understand my sitting out on our front garden wall gazing into space.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
...there will be a full moon by Uranus.
Libertas in infinitum
But it's overcast, you insensitive clod!
meh
you can watch the Total Eclipse here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1DdqeqJwTA
What about Asia?
I made some pictures from the very central location of Europe - Kiev, Ukraine. Take a look here. It's not so easy to make pictures or Moon, though! :)